et square leading from the roosting house to the
laying house with a sliding door at each end to be used at pleasure. As
it often happens in cold, snowy weather in winter it is not desirable to
let the fowls out, then the slides at each end of the passway can be
opened and feed and water placed in the laying house (because the floor
in that house will always be cleanest), and all the fowls will soon
learn to go in there to eat and drink, and lay if they want to. It is, I
think, bad policy to force fowls to roost, lay, and sit all in the same
room.

The boxes that contain the nests should be made so that they can be at
any time taken out and the nests turned out in a pile, set on fire and
the boxes held over the fire to kill any lice that may be sticking to
them.

B. F. C.
HIKE'S POINT, KY.

* * * * *

A person signing himself a "Nobleman's Gardener," says in an English
paper that it is a mistake to use poultry manure as a top-dressing for
garden crops; for farm crops also, if the poultry and pigeon dung were
in any considerable bulk. This, however, is not usually the case, and a
hundred weight or two would not make much of an impression on a farm.
The manure in question is a powerful fertilizer, containing ammonia,
phosphates, and carbonate of lime in considerable quantity, also uric
acid, all of which are valuable ingredients for the support of crops.
The simplest method of preparing the manure for use is to partially dry
it, then mix it with perfectly dry sifted soil or ashes in sufficient
quantity that will enable the entire mixture to be rubbed through a
half-inch sieve. A man can do this comfortably with the hand inclosed in
a thick leather glove. In this finely powdered state it can be stored in
a dry shed till wanted for use. It is an excellent top-dressing for
onions, strawberries, and, in fact, for all vegetable crops that need
assistance, also for fruit trees and lawns. It is best applied in
showery weather in the spring--for lawns at the rate of two ounces,
vegetable crops and strawberries three ounces, and fruit trees four
ounces per square yard. If in very large bulk and needed for use in
fields it would scarcely be necessary to pulverize it, as mixing it with
dry soil, etc., and turning the heap over a few times would suffice for
its ready application.

* * * * *

The strength of the donkey mind lies in adopting a course inve