THE KITCHEN-GARDEN.

THE present season has been one of the finest ever remembered for trenching, forcing, and surfacestirring the soil; and wherever these matters have been duly attended to, the soil must be in a fine, healthy, and well pulverized condition. If due attention has been paid to our directions during so favourable a seed-growing season, strong healthy plants will be sure to appear, and with careful after attention, crops of all kinds of vegetables will certainly be luxuriant and productive. Hoeing and scarifying are the principal attentions required; and if such operations are performed in due season, much time and after labour is saved, and a weed never has the chance of appearing. As to the slug, or other destructive vermin, there is but little fear of them, as they and their larvæ get so constantly routed about by the continual stirring of the earth, that their appearance becomes very scarce. Those who have not thought it worth while to adopt this system, and who are, consequently, pretty well stocked with such pests as we have been describing, may feel themselves a little annoyed, as soon as showery weather sets in, to find how much atteution will be required, early in the morning and late in the evening, to prevent the destruction of their crops. New brewers' grains and new brau are two of the best articles we could ever discover for enticing the slugs together. We lay a good tablespoonful of either one or the other in small lumps here and there, about the places which they frequent in the dusk of the evening, and in two or three hours afterwards they will be found congregated together, and may be destroyed in quantities. We formerly used sometimes to collect them, by taking them up with a trowel, and putting them into a pail; and, at other times, we have gone round with a bucket of hot slaked lime, dusting it over them, and collecting them and their bait together early the next morning.

ASPARAGUS PLANTING.-The season for planting this vegetable will soon arrive. Our system is, after the soil has become in good condition (the directions for which have been previously given), to set out the rows at two feet apart, stretching the line from end to end, and with a hoe drawing a drill on each side of it, placing the roots astride, in a regular manner,

over the little ridge thus formed between the two drills; drawing the earth up over them immediately with hoe or rake, and pressing it down with a gentle tread of the foot, and then giving it the finishing touch with either of the same tools again.

ROUTINE WORK.-Basil and sweet marjoram sow in full crop, as well as carrots; also full sowings of celery. This latter vegetable should be sown on a little heat, or on a well-prepared soil in a warm situa tion Prick off and repot chillie and capsicum plants, as well as tomatoes. Sow the late kinds of peas and beans in succession, and attend to the surface hoeing of those now making their appearance. A drill of the round variety of spinach should also occasionally be sown. Full crops of parsley may be sown too, and the early-sown now coming up would be the better for a gentle raking, to break the surface crust. Parsley sown in pans for transplanting should now be planted out on well-prepared rich soil, in rows one foot apart each way.

MUSHROOM BEDS for the summer should be made in shaded, cold situations, or dark sheds. Underground cellars, or caves of any kind, are famous situations for mushroom culture in summer. Two parts of wellmade stable dung to one part of good tenacious loam, well incorporated together, and made as firm as possible by treading or ramming, will be found excellent for producing an abundance of fine mushrooms of the best quality. Mushroom beds at this season should be made one-third slighter or less substantial than in the autumn; they should, if possible, at all times be cased about two inches in thickness with good healthy loam, well beaten down.

MELONS now require attention. Keep up a kindly uniform heat to those about showing fruit, take particular care in stopping all the leading shoots, as soon as they show fruit, one joint above the fruit; leave those only that show the strongest for fruit, and if only one or two of these are in bloom in a light at one time, pick them off. Watch the opportunity when four, five, or more open their blossoms on the same day, and pay due attention to the impregnation; shut up early, and make use of less humidity for a few days afterwards. Increase the heat to 75° night interior temperature, and a crop of even-sized melons may be expected as the result. These should be duly thinned to the requisite number of four or five of the handsomest-shaped fruit to each light. This must be regulated, of course, according to the strength of the plants. Liberal applications of tepid, clear, liquid manure should be given once or twice a week until the fruit has swelled to its full size, when water of any kind should be withheld, gently sprinkling the back or interior sides of the frame or structure every fine evening at shutting-up time with tepid water, which will maintain a healthy humidity throughout the night. We never, at any part of the season, apply the water over the foliage of either melon, cucumber, or vine: we always place the blossom end of our melons to the north, and the stalks to the south aspect, which prevents their cracking. JAMES BARNES.

MISCELLANEOUS INFORMATION.

ALLOTMENT FARMING FOR APRIL. SOILING. A proper economy in the management and application of manures is well known to be, after thorough draining, the true foundation of either good gardening or farming. For in very truth, although their operations would seem to differ so

widely, they rest on a precisely similar basis, and a first-rate kitchen or commercial gardener may be safely looked up to as a model by which the proceed ings of the allotment holder may be shaped. As bearing on the manure question, we would point to what is termed "soiling," as applied to live stock; and whatever benefits may be derivable from it to a farmer on a larger scale, of this we are assured, that it is eminently calculated to benefit the cottager who keeps a cow or two.

By a "soiling" system, we mean the cutting and carrying the green food to the shippon, shed, or cowhouse, instead of consuming it in the field. By this practice, about one-half the usual quantity of land allotted to a cow will suffice. By this mode, the cottier's land will be found to increase in depth of tilth and richness annually, for his manure will annually increase.

GREEN CROPS.-Of course a difference in the mode of cropping would be necessary; for a variety of other things creep into, and form part of, this system in different parts of the kingdom; the difference being, for the most part, based on the character of the soil in its relation to any given crop. Thus, pad clover and rye grass mixed, about 12 lbs. of the former, and a peck and half of the latter, is a very general favourite. Lucerne, also, to which we alluded at page 292, is scarcely second to any crop, especially if laid down on soil which has got into fine tilth, and become perfectly clean through previous root-cropping, under high culture. About 12 lbs. of seed to the acre will suffice. As early spring feed, too, rye, autumn sown, is a useful adjunct; sometimes, mixed with vetches. Of course, potatoes, swedes, mangold, cabbages, carrots, and the other valuable roots, will chime in with such a plan as winter soiling; as, also, all the other items suggested in previous allotment papers; the main difference being, that there will be no need of what is termed permanent pasturage, and, indeed, little, if any, under hay, in the common sense of the term. Oats may alternate occasionally with this system, both in order to improve the rotation by creating much organic matter in the soil, and also in order to provide straw to consume with the roots in winter.

Some caution is necessary in giving clover to cows, its swelling tendencies are well known. The best way is to cut it a day, at least, before it is consumed; the beast, too, should be attended on the principle little and often." By these means, if a small enclosed fold could be attached to the shippon, it is astonishing what a mass of manure would be scraped together in twelvemonths by a hard-working cottager The hand of the diligent maketh rich." We turn now to the minor affairs of the allotment holder; the time has arrived when the amount of diligence and skill exercised during the next three weeks will determine the amount of prosperity of the ensuing winter. We will endeavour to take the matter in the order of culture necessary.

PREPARATION OF SOIL.-At page 292, we adverted to this; we now repeat, be not afraid of a little extra labour." The weather has been so unusually fair, and so very dry, that land which has had a due share of attention, will be in better order than has been known for some years.

MANURING.-Let every plot or bed be at once apportioned, if not hitherto done, in the most decided way; and let the proper amount of manure necessary, be decided on in a sensible manner. There are those who apply the same amount to every crop, and in the same way. If they are ignorant, we hope by our

paper to enlighten them; if they are indifferent, they do not deserve so great a boon as a nice garden. In determining the quantity and also the quality of the manure necessary for any given plot or crop, it is proper to note the effect required; whether prospective or immediate. At page 292, we remarked on this head, under the section "breaking-up ground for allotments." We beg our readers to refer to that portion. It is there shown that as to "rest land about to be converted into ground or root crops, especially the latter, the young plant requires to be coaxed in its earlier stages, if a full crop is expected. We would therefore advise the allotment holder, who, though provident habits, has a few extra shillings and some extent of ground, to purchase a little real Peruvian Guano: than which nothing will be found more suitable to the purpose in hand. Now, as this guano is expensive, it behoves the allotment man to mind how he lays his cash out for it; for the majority of guanos hitherto in the market show an amount of adulteration which would make the vendors blush, were it not that they had become exceedingly callous to those feelings, which we trust still cling to humanity in general. We have not space here to quote the pith of a lecture on guanos, by Professor Way, delivered at the Meeting of the Royal Agricultural Society of England, at their house in Hanover-Square, London, on February 27th. Wo can merely say, that the adulteration is immense; and that unless our allotment readers can get some upright and kind friend to purchase their modicum of this precious article from a first-rate source, such as Gibbs and Co., they had better be content with the soot of their chimney, and such other homely material as they can scrape together. Of the latter, we may name the old rotten material from the woodpile, old tan, old decayed leaves, fowl manure, very old manures, gone almost to a powder, mellow ditehing if not clayey, pond mnd dried, &c. &c. Any or all of these things are good to mix with soot, guano, or any other concentrated or caustic manure, not only as increasing its bulk, but in order to subdue that too sudden and sometimes prejudicial effect, which such highly concentrated matters are apt to create, and which although ultimately of immense benefit, are but too apt to engender a vast amount of prejudice against their application.

PARSNIPS.--Sown of course; if not, let them be put in immediately. A loamy soil preferable; deep digging with manure in the bottom of the trench the best policy. Kind-the large Hollow-crowned Guernsey.

CARROTS.-Let the principal crop be sown from the tenth to the twenty-fourth of April. Soil-deeply dug and friable. Manure, if any, at the bottom of the trench. The young plant "coaxed," as before suggested, by scattering those mixed materials in the drills. We still advise occasional sowings of the Early Horn carrots, either in beds or drills. Plenty advice will be found in our back Allotment Papers.

TURNIPS.-The swedes, if sown to remain, should be got in about the middle of the month; the ground should above all things be well worked, and by all means let some stimulating manure be put in the drills. This is one of the most material points in swede culture, for we have known crops secured, side by side with others which have totally missed, by these means. Rapid growth is the best chance against the fly. A little Peruvian guano, and some soot, mixed with any old vegetable soil, or very old and mellow manure, will be found excellent. A seedbed must not be sown until the beginning of May:

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that is to say, if the plants are to succeed early crops. PEAS.-A good sowing of the Green Imperial may now be the last with the allotment-holder; at least, those with limited space. These will be off by the end of July, and the ground ready for winter greens. Of course the cottager will hoe through his former sowing, and stake them in due time.

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BROAD BEANS.-We said, at page 293, that we would not have allotment-men sow later than the middle of March. If, however, they will try late crops, let them not defer it beyond the present period; choosing a cool and half-shaded situation for them. We would have all allotmentMANGOLD-WURTZEL.men, or cottagers who keep a cow, grow some mangold. It is such a long-keeping root, as to come in cleverly after swedes are all gone; indeed, it might be had good until June or July, if necessary. As bearing on the soiling system," alluded to at the beginning of this paper, it is of much benefit; for, towards the end of March, and thenceforward to the beginning of May, there is little pasturage; the hay-stack is generally a poor shrunken thing, the oat-straw is gone in wintering, the swedes are becoming exhausted, and the rye, or other early cutting, is not yet ready. For this period, then, principally, we would reserve the mangold. Besides, who can say that the dreadful potato-scourge may not visit us again with increased terrors? To be sure, wheat is cheap, but still roots are always in demand as a convenience; and some mangold and swedes, at least, save a draw on the carrots and parsnips,-which latter should feed the cottier and his children; the other, principally as food for the cow and pig.

We are now drawing near to the limits of our paper, but we must beg to offer a few other scraps of advice.

About onions, lettuces, parsnips, spinach, rhubarb, &c., we spoke in the paper for March, page 292; we need not now, therefore, enlarge on those matters. We pass on, therefore, to

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THE POULTRY-KEEPER'S CALENDAR.

APRIL.

By Martin Doyle, Author of " Hints to Small
Farmers," &c.

REARING OF POULTRY.-A cottager's family ought to know how to rear poultry; neither much art nor extraordinary care is required for this purpose, and considerable profit may be realized by the sale of poultry and eggs. With the advantage of a garden or field, and little enclosure, two or three sorts may be reared.

And how pleasant is it to see the children of cottagers-who have not many sources of amusement— watching, with eager curiosity and delight, the progress of life in the chick, from the day when its first faint chirp gives warning of its desire and efforts to issue forth from its protecting shell to the period when it becomes a proud and courageous husband, or a nursing mother "gathering her chickens under her wings," and evincing the self-denial, anxiety, and fortitude, which teach the moral lesson to Christian mothers that tenderness, devotedness, and resolution are duties to be fulfilled by them towards their children; while the same teaching instructs these-their offspring-that they should obey their mother's warning voice, flee to her for protection, and confide in her love.

HATCHING.-The number of eggs for the largest hen ought not to exceed 15; 12 may be considered the average for well-sized hens. The nest should be of soft straw, laid on or near the ground, and in a warm aspect.

Some hens will scarcely leave the nest for food or water, therefore both should be within their reach; but it is better to encourage her to leave the nest for a few minutes once a day, in order to feed and stretch her legs. Taking daily food is necessary not only to preserve her strength, but to keep up the warmth of her body, which is essential in the process of hatching. The greater the circumference and weight of her body, the greater the number of eggs which the hen can cover, and the greater the heat she imparts; for this reason, among others, and the convenient length of her legs, the Dorking breed is superior for sitting. A long-legged bird, like the Malay, would feel it more difficult to bend her legs in a proper manner under her body, and continue in that constrained position than a bird with shorter stilts; as a tailor with very short legs and thighs can, we pre

sume, sit more at ease on his board while he amuses himself with his goose.

It is useless, if not prejudicial, to turn the eggs in the nest; leave the hen to her own instincts in this respect, she will manage them properly. It is not injudicious however to examine the eggs, as Mr. Richardson directs, about the twelfth day, to ascer tain whether they are fruitful :-" for this purpose hold the egg between your hands in the sunshine, if the shadow which it forms waver, keep the egg, as the wavering of the shadow is occasioned by the motion of the chick within; if it remain stationary, throw it away." On the 21st day the chicks begin to peck at the shell with their upper bills, and faintly chirp at their labour, as if they were saying, "I want to get out." But perhaps they may not be able to make an opening with their little pick-axes for many hours, yet it will be better not to assist them, unless it should at last be almost certain that they cannot do their own work.

After examining the eggs and listening to the chirp within, the eggs, if replaced, should be set on the large end, otherwise the chick would be turned upside down, in which position it could not peck at the shell. One object of the examination should be to ascertain, through the light, if the yolk has been taken up into the body of the chick to supply it with the necessary nourishment for 24 hours.

The best instrument for opening the shell is the point of a pair of scissors; and great tenderness should be used in freeing the prisoner from the shell, in case that its feathers should be glued to it, which will probably be the case if the chick do not extricate itself within a few hours after the opening of the shell has been first made.

For the first fortnight the chicks should be frequently fed with crumbs of bread soaked in milk during the day, and afterwards with grits, curds, rice boiled in butter-milk or skim-milk, barley meal, potatoes, &c., according as they are to be fattened off or not.

During the first month, the nursing hen is usually tethered by the leg to a small coop, placed on a grassy sward in sunshine, or confined in it, in order that at her warning voice the chickens may enter in through the bars. Unless she is a very giddy and careless mother, it is more humane to leave her at some liberty after her long sitting, in the full enjoyment of her little family, as far as their security will permit.

Sometimes good sitting hens are made to sit twice in succession, by transferring the chicks to fostermothers; this is a barbarous custom, unnatural, and therefore to be discountenanced, unless under some very peculiar circumstances.

TURKEYS.-The turkey lays all her eggs wherever she has made her first nest, which will be in some secluded nook, if she be not watched when she gives that peculiar note of warning which a poultry woman understands. The turkey hen lays sometimes every day, sometimes every second day, and sits for 32 perseveringly; she is a gentle, unoffending creature, and yet the turkey cock would do her eggs, and herself when laying, an injury if he could find them.

The chicks of the turkey make their appearance on the 31st and 32nd day, and are to be treated as in the former case, that is, they are to be left to their own efforts as long as possible, and not removed from the nest for at least 12 hours after they have been liberated from the shell. As the mother is not a clever intelligent bird, the care of a woman or girl is constantly required to feed the young birds, to

shelter them from showers, or excessive heat, until they are six weeks old, at which time they will eat boiled potatoes and turnips, or nettles, lettuces, &c., chopped and mixed with meal or grits, without her hand. Their first food should be curds and hard egg, with crumbs. The boarded coop will be the best security for them against sudden rain, after they have been housed until the weather has become sufficiently mild to admit of their taking the air. The confinement of the mother in or near the coop will be indispensable, if their be no enclosed yard, because turkeys are determined ramblers. GEESE.

"On Candlemas day

Good housewife's geese lay."

The goose-which in the natural course of her habits began to lay in February or early in March-is perhaps now desiring to sit after having laid (always in the same nest where her laying commenced) a sufficient number for hatching, which we have stated in the calender of last month to be 15. It is decidedly more economical to have goslings produced from the eggs than to consume them prematurely, if there be a run for them on a common more especially. Their value and usefulness is scarcely calculable. We will suppose that a village green supports only 50 brood geese, the owners of these would be dissatisfied if they got but 10 young ones from each in the year besides eggs. This gives 500 geese per annum, without taking the chance of a second brood; multiply 500 by the number of village greens and we will form a very inadequate estimate of the importance of the bird. And all this with scarcely any outlay. The little trouble they demand of being secured at night and let out in the morning, of setting the geese and pegging the goslings, is a source of amusement and interest to thousands of aged and infirm persons, in whose affections their geese stand second only to their children and relations.

The period of incubation for the goose is 31 days, during which the gander may be near her, if he chooses, without any danger of his doing mischief. He is a quiet, loving mate, and has been known to take a turn at sitting on the eggs. The goslings must not be let near water for a few days after their birth, and must be kept dry and warm at first, like the young of other poultry. Green food and garden roots may be soon mixed with meal for them. Early geese should be well fed for the early market.

DUCKS. The period of incubation with them is also 31 days. But they are not often employed as nurses, on account of their propensity to quit the nest for a cold bath. Ducks are very prolific; and as they will often lay a great many eggs in the season, it is perhaps better on the whole to set some of their eggs, (say from 9 to 11) under a large hen, or from 15 to 18 under a turkey; though when they are able to run about and swim they cause dreadful terror to their affectionate foster-mothers, who run round the water intreating of them not to drown themselves, as they fear they are heedlessly about to do, but without being attended to by the ungrateful objects of their solicitude, as sometimes happens to other mothers too. Ducklings ought not to be allowed access to a pond before they are a fortnight old, though they may be allowed before that time to paddle in a flat dish. The care and feeding which is usual with goslings at the beginning should be observed with ducklings.

VARIETIES. The two best kinds of duck are the Aylesbury and the Rouen; but we shall confine our attention to-day to that first-named.

BEE-KEEPER'S CALENDAR.-APRIL. By J. H. Payne, Esq., Author of "The Bee-keeper's Guide," de.

By the time this paper meets the eye of my apiarian friends, the busy month of preparation with all provident bee-keepers will be just commencing; both hives and boxes are now all cleaned and arranged, ready for being placed upon the stock-hives at the end of the month; those hives that required fresh painting are already done, or will be immediately set about; and, where Taylor's Amateur's Hives are used, guide-combs will be fixed upon the bars, the method of doing which I will give in Mr. Taylor's own words:

GUIDE-COMBS." Pieces of clear worker-comb should be reserved for guide-combs (or decoys for glasses). Upon each of the side-bars, nearest the centre one, a small piece of comb should be fixed. This is easily effected by heating a common flat-iron, slightly warming the bars with it, then melting a little beeswax upon it. The comb is now drawn quickly across the heated iron, and held down upon the bar, to which it firmly adheres, if properly managed. These pieces of guide-comb need not be more than two or three inches in diameter. Care should be taken that the pitch, or inclination of the cells, is upwards from the centre of each comb. Drone-celled combs for this purpose are to be avoided, as well as those with elongated cells." Glasses will be provided, and guidecombs fixed in them also.

This is not a busy month for the apiarian only, but with his bees as well, in bringing in pollen. Mr. Golding tells us, that the neighbourhood of willows is of great advantage to the bees in early spring: should a few fine days accompany their flowering, many hives will be enabled to ward off the impending famine which but too often then threatens. He

says, that from the 20th to the 30th of March, in 1830, the weather was so favourable as to enable the bees to make an extraordinary collection; single hives in some days gained in weight upwards of three pounds each, and worked in wax, where room was given, as vigorously as at Midsummer. The spring of 1841 was a very similar one; and he says, that his hives, on the 16th of March of that year, gained from two to three pounds each during the day.

POLLEN. The first collection of pollen that I have witnessed this year was on the 15th of February; from its appearance it must, I think, be gathered from the winter aconite, a good deal of which is growing around me. An excellent thing this, with the Cloth-of-gold crocus, to cultivate for a very early supply, for they afford both pollen and honey in considerable abundance but I am by no means an advocate for culti vating plants exclusively for bees, except it be a few very early flowering ones: for though you may cultivate borage, and mignonette, it must be to the surrounding country that the apiarian should look for his chief supply-to the fields of white clover, the woods, the heaths, &c., &c.

BEE-DRESS. As the season for going amongst our bees is fast approaching, and as careful apiarians are desirous of having all things ready for use before they are immediately required, and as being well armed against the stings of their bees gives confidence and coolness to the inexperienced operator, both of which are so essentially necessary to the successful accomplishment of his object, I will give the plan of a very simple and convenient bee dress, which has been kindly handed to me by a friend. It is formed of green leno, and so made as to inclose the head, neck, and shoulders; indeed, it is like a bag, with sleeves to tie at the wrists; the sleeves are made of green glazed cambric. It forms altogether a perfect panoply, and the most timid person, with its aid, may perform the most difficult operation with the greatest coolness, and without the possibility of being stung.

YOUNG BEES.-The first time of my observing young bees this year was on the 1st of March, at some of my strongest hives. They may be known by their colour, which is something lighter than the old ones; and by their unwillingness to take flight upon first coming out of the hive. They may be seen to turn round several times upon the alighting board, and to run from side to side of it, as if afraid to trust themselves to their wings.

DRONE BEES. Drone bees usually make their appearance towards the middle or the end of this month; their first appearance is very gratifying to the bee-keepers, for it proves to him that his stocks are in a healthy and prosperous condition. It is said that the celebrated apiarian, Bonner, was always so delighted at their first appearance, that he made the day one of festivity and rejoicing for himself and all his family.

ROBBERS.As considerable robberies frequently take place in this month amongst the bees, attention is required to discover if any hives are attacked, and when it is found to be the case, it will be necessary to narrow the entrance of the hive, so that one, or two bees at most, can go in at the same time. The weak stocks, in general, are those that suffer from pillage. Robber-bees may easily be distinguished from others, for they fly rapidly round the hive, and hover before the entrance for some time before alighting; and when they venture to do so, they are generally seized by some of the sentinels which guard the

entrance.