3o6 Notes and Gleanings. 



Waste of Manure. — It is to the reckless, and therefore wicked, waste of 

 fertilizing material that the attention of all cultivators of the soil should be par- 

 ticularly directed. As a single element in the computation of this loss, so possi- 

 ble to avoid, and for that reason the more inexcusable, consider the fact that a 

 barrel of flour is estimated in the annual subsistence of each and every individual 

 in the community. All then that enters into the formation of two hundred thou- 

 sand bushels of wheat, saving the two per cent, that remains in the human body, 

 the sole and exhausting product of twenty thousand acres is yearly extracted 

 from the prairies of the West by the population of this single city, to swell the 

 clam-banks of Narragansett Bay. Devastation of the essential constituents of 

 the difterent varieties of fruits advances with a similar unthrift. Do we need to 

 inquire why our long-established orchards refuse to yield their increase, except- 

 ing only seasons like the present, in which the fierce stimulus of a torrid heat 

 compelled a growth that threatens final and utter exhaustion ? 



This whole subject, compared with which wars and rumors of wars are dwarfed 

 into insignificance ; this subject, which involves in its ultimate relations no less 

 consequences than the future subsistence of entire nations, whereas other matters 

 but affect their prosperity or independence, has latterly forced itself upon the 

 attention of the people and Parliament of Great Britain. It is felt that without 

 a speedy change the land must continue to deteriorate ; its produce to lessen 

 with its impoverishments. Accordingly commissions are formed, investigations 

 set on foot, experiments prosecuted. Note the basis on which they proceed ! 



" It is unquestionable that so well fed an animal as man ought to be good farm 

 stock. Compared with the sheep, he is better fed, and he takes less out of his 

 food. Take any given human population ; its average weight is a pretty con- 

 stant quantity, and it increases not more than two per cent, annually. The total 

 weight of the population of England increases not more than two per cent. ; 

 that is all that man saves out of his year's food in this country. On the other 

 hand, the total weight of a flock of sheep will increase from forty to sixty per 

 cent, in the same time. There is a smaller waste of poorer food in the case of 

 sheep than in the case of man ; and yet the former is the best farm stock we 

 have for maintaining the fertility of land, and the latter is, in this respect, virtu- 

 ally good for nothing. What can be the explanation of this anomaly ? The 

 whole excrement of the sheep-fold is deposited on the land which it is to benefit, 

 while the whole waste from our houses finds its way into the river." Et sic 

 passifu. Report of Edward IV. Lincoln, Secy. Worcester Hort. Soc. 



Bees and Raspberries. — An idea has been advanced that bees are injuri- 

 ous to a crop of raspberries ; but a correspondent of the Practical Farmer is 

 of a very different opinion. He says, " I have a quarter of an acre in raspberries 

 adjoining my apiary of two hundred swarms of Italian bees, and I am very sure 

 the bees were a great advantage to the berries. Every blossom produced a 

 berry. I sold between thirty and forty gallons of raspberries off the quarter 

 acre the second and third year after it was planted. I value the raspberry highly 

 for its honey and fruit, and think of planting ten acres next year." 



