Proceedings of the Farmers' Club. 405 



■which he can now get for one dollar per acre will soon sell for five 

 dollars. 



Fertilizing Strawberries. 



Mr. I). Oglesby, "Washington county, 111. — Permit me to inquire 

 what fertilizers are best for strawberry plants in the absence of stable 

 manure. How do the bone phosphates answer ? How pure bone- 

 dust 1 How plaster or lime ? Is salt beneficial % How, when and in 

 what quantities should the several manures be applied ? 



Dr. F. M. Hexamer — The bone phosphates and pure bone-dust are 

 good for strawberry plants. Plaster and lime cannot be recom- 

 mended unless in composts. Salt is not a special manure for them. 

 If he cannot get stable manure, let him make a compost heap by 

 piling up turf, mixing forest leaves with it, and using some lime to 

 hasten decomposition. To this pile add bone-dust, a barrel of it to 

 each two-horse load of the compost, shovel all together and work it 

 down fine. Then make the land mellow to the depth of a foot, open 

 a furrow and shovel it full of this compost, cover and set the plants 

 in this enriched furrow, planting deep and pressing the earth firmly 

 around the crown of the plant. Keep clean, and after a crop reward 

 the plants with a liberal top-dressing of the same compost. He can 

 get big berries only by having large plants, and they will grew only 

 in a rich soil. 



Everybody Should Have a Midden. 



Mr. D. McDonald, Ileislerville, N". J. — I have never had pluck to 

 put my ungrammatical words in letter form, and thrust them in an 

 editors' s way ; but having read much of the sayings and doings of the 

 Farmers' Club, and finding in the minutes of December 5 an invita- 

 tion for plain talk on farm topics, I venture a short letter on manure 

 making. Any one having a ditch, bank, muck swamp, wood-pile, 

 dirt, or any waste material can have a midden, and those who have 

 never had one will be surprised at the size their pile will get to be in 

 a year's time. For instance : The last of October we made a new 

 midden, and if $50 will take it off these twenty-five acres the 1st of 

 next April, then I am mistaken. How to make a midden : Select 

 the most convenient place for house and privy, for from these two 

 places come the life of the heap, and most of it must be wheeled or 

 carried, while in most cases the muck, or whatever it may be, will be 

 carted on cart or wagon. Four or five loads should be dumped 

 together for a foundation ; leave the top with a hollow in it, and 



