SETTLE all your accounts, collect what is due you, and pay what
you owe. "Short settlements make long friends." Examine your farm
statistics, and see what have been the results of your experiments
with the different kinds of manures, seeds, modes of tillage, &c.,
&c.; and note them well for future use. No farmer ought to be without
such a book, in which all experiments should be carefully recorded
at the time, and the results carried into a separate book for his
own use hereafter; and if new and valuable discoveries are obtained,
communicate them to some agricultural periodical for the benefit of
the world. Recollect, you have the experience of thousands to guide
your operations, and, by contributing to the general stock whatever
may be useful, you are but returning to mankind a part of the benefits
you have derived from them. But avoid twaddle and humbuggery, and
oft-published statements, and prolix or tedious narration, and give
all the circumstances material to the subjects in the briefest,
plainest, simplest language possible. Above all things, send in your
subscription to one or more valuable agricultural papers, and get as
many of your neighbors to subscribe as possible; and consider, in so
doing, you are benefiting yourself by it ten times as much as you are
the publishers. Summer is peculiarly the time for making observations
and experiments, and winter the time for communicating them. _Remember
the poor_, not only in this month, but every month through the year,
and especially during the inclemency of winter. You need not give so
much to them outright, but endeavor to put them in a way of making
themselves comfortable, by affording them employment, by which, you may
be benefited, while doing them good. You thus confer on them a triple
benefit, by furnishing them the means of comfortable subsistence,
teaching them to help themselves, and avoiding the habit of receiving
_charity_, which insensibly weakens their sense of self-dependance.
Stock now requires increased attention: they must be well housed, or
at least protected against wind, with a shelter to which they can
resort in storms, well supplied with salt, and abundance of water,
if possible, in the yard, where they can get it when they want, and
without wearying themselves in looking for it, and wasting their
manure by dropping it in the road, or by a running stream or pond,
where it will all be lost. Their feed should be regular, and given to
them as near stated times as possible. They look for their food then
at certain hours, and are not uneasy and fretful till the customary
period arrives, when they again fill themselves, and rest quietly,
digesting their food till it is time to look for another supply. If
brought up in regular habits, brutes are much better time-keepers than
many are disposed to consider them who have not observed closely their
intelligence. Now is a good time to break steers and colts, while
the roads are smooth and hard. They ought to be early accustomed to
handling and the halter, and be gently treated, by which they are more
disposed to yield to the wishes of their master. If they have been
always used to good treatment, they will acquire a confidence in their
keepers, and the more readily submit to their guidance. 'Tis always
better to train them with strong, well-broken animals. Sympathy has
more to do with the brute creation than they have credit for generally;
and the good habits and orderly behavior of the older animals, they
have been accustomed to treat with deference, will not be without their
wholesome effect on them.
This is the best month for spreading out hemp for dew-rotting, in the
latitudes below 40°, as it gets a whiter and better rot than if spread
earlier.
KITCHEN-GARDEN.--Every fine day uncover the frames in which are lettuce
and cauliflower plants; otherwise they will become spindling, from want
of air. Hot-beds can now be made, for forcing asparagus for the table
in January. If the ground is open, continue trenching for spring crops.
When the ground is frozen, cart manure, repair fences, clean seeds,
prepare tools for spring. Provide pea-sticks, bean-poles, &c., and
finish all that will be required in the spring, and which can be done
when the ground is frozen.
FRUIT-GARDEN AND ORCHARD.--Finish those things which may have been
omitted the previous month. If the weather continues open, digging and
plowing may be done advantageously. Perform any work that may tend to
forward your business in the spring.
FLOWER-GARDEN AND PLEASURE-GROUNDS.--Continue to protect your beds
of bulbs, and also flower-beds and shrubs as directed in last month.
Should the weather continue open in the early part of this month, bulbs
may still be planted. They should not be left as late as this, but if
such has been the case, they had better be planted now than left until
spring. Now carefully protect seedling bulbs. The more tender kinds of
trees can have their roots protected from frost by laying manure or
long litter about them.