Fruit Trees and Bushes. 61 



are in the runs. A capital plan we recently saw on a farm, 

 was to lay the runs out in wide strips, say, about one hundred 

 feet long and fifty feet wide. Between these the various 

 bushes were planted, of course being separated from the 

 fowls by wire netting. Here, the plan adopted, was to let 

 the fowls run on the ground for two or three years, then 

 transplant the bushes into the runs occupied by them, and 

 give the birds the strips where the bushes had been. This 

 doubtless would involve considerable trouble, but not so 

 much as might be imagined, and the bushes got the benefit 

 of the well manured, and the fowls of the clean soils. Some 

 such plan as this, or the protecting of the bushes by tanned 

 twine netting during the fruiting season, is necessary where 

 small fruit trees are planted. Or, if there is plenty of shelter 

 from other trees, runs which had been occupied by poultry 

 for two or three years, could be planted with strawberry plants, 

 fresh runs being given to the birds, and, we venture to say, 

 that the quality and quantity of the fruit on the former, would 

 lead to. a still further extension of the system. The benefit, 

 as we have already hinted, will be twofold. Not only will 

 the profit from the fruii> which can easily be made to almost 

 if not more than pay the rent, but the land Will be thus kept 

 perfectly pure and sweet, and consequently there will be much 

 less risk of disease among the stock. 



It is not necessary for us to go into any details as to the 

 methods of planting, the number of trees per acre, and the 

 kinds of trees to be chosen. These can easily be obtained 

 elsewhere ; but our readers having received the suggestion 

 can adapt it in their own way. The plan can doubtless be 

 considerably developed, and other things found to help forward 

 the same end, if brains are set to work. For instance, in a 

 yard where the pens are divided either by wood or wire, the 

 appearance of these can be greatly improved by planting 

 creepers about them, and for this purpose there is nothing 



