ecommended--I dare not say generally
practised. The one, is to keep the orchard in bare-fallow; the other, to
keep it in grass, and top-dress with manure, and either eat the grass
off on the land with sheep and pigs, or else mow it frequently, and let
the grass rot on the surface, for mulch and manure.

"You are speaking now," said the Deacon, "of bearing apple-orchards. No
one recommends keeping a young orchard in grass. We all know that young
apple trees do far better when the land is occupied with corn, potatoes,
beans, or some other crop, which can be cultivated, than they do on land
occupied with wheat, barley, oats, rye, buckwheat, or grass and clover.
And even with bearing peach trees, I have seen a wonderful difference in
an orchard, half of which was cultivated with corn, and the other half
sown with wheat. The trees in the wheat were sickly-looking, and bore a
small crop of inferior fruit, while the trees in the corn, grew
vigorously and bore a fine crop of fruit. And the increased value of the
crop of peaches on the cultivated land was far more than we can ever
hope to get from a crop of wheat."

"And yet," said the Doctor, "the crop of corn on the cultivated half of
the peach-orchard removed far more plant-food from the soil, than the
crop of wheat. And so it is evident that the difference is not due
wholly to the supply of manure in the surface-soil. It may well be that
the cultivation which the corn received favored the decomposition of
organic matter in the soil, and the formation of nitrates, and when the
rain came, it would penetrate deeper into the loose soil than on the
adjoining land occupied with wheat. The rain would carry the nitrogen
down to the roots of the peach trees, and this will account for the dark
green color of the leaves on the cultivated land, and the yellow,
sickly-looking leaves on the trees among the wheat."

HEN-MANURE, AND WHAT TO DO WITH IT.

A bushel of corn fed to a hen would give no more nitrogen, phosphoric
acid, and potash, in the shape of manure, than a bushel of corn fed to a
pig. The manure from the pig, however, taking the urine and solid
excrement together, contain 82 per cent of water, while that from the
hen contains only 56 per cent of water. Moreover, hens pick up worms and
insects, and their food in such case would contain more nitrogen than
the usual food of pigs, and the manure would be correspondingly richer
in nitrogen. Hence it happens that 100 lbs. of _d