dead body whose spirit has departed.'

"There is a source of valuable and extremely useful manure on every
farm, of which very few farmers avail themselves--the gathering together
in one spot of all combustible waste and rubbish, the clippings of
hedges, scouring of ditches, grassy accumulation on the sides of roads
and fences, etc., combined with a good deal of earth. If these are
carted at leisure times into a large circle, or in two rows, to supply
the fire kindled in the center, in a spot which is frequented by the
laborers on the farm, with a three-pronged fork and a shovel attendant,
and each passer-by is encouraged to add to the pile whenever he sees the
smoke passing away so freely as to indicate rapid combustion, a very
large quantity of valuable ashes are collected between March and
October. In the latter month the fire should be allowed to go out; the
ashes are then thrown into a long ridge, as high as they will stand, and
thatched while dry. This will be found an invaluable store in April,
May, and June, capable of supplying from twenty to forty bushels of
ashes per acre, according to the care and industry of the collector, to
drill with the seeds of the root crop."

The Deacon got sleepy before Charley finished reading. "We can not
afford to be at so much trouble in this country," he said, and took up
his hat and left.

The Deacon is not altogether wrong. Our climate is very different from
that of England, and it is seldom that farmers need to draw out manure,
and pile it in the field, except in winter, and then it is not
necessary, I think, either to dig a pit or to cover the heap. Those who
draw manure from the city in summer, may probably adopt some of Mr.
Lawrence's suggestions with advantage.

The plan of collecting rubbish, brush, old wood, and sods, and
converting them into ashes or charcoal, is one which we could often
adopt with decided advantage. Our premises would be cleaner, and we
should have less fungus to speck and crack our apples and pears, and, in
addition, we should have a quantity of ashes or burnt earth, that is not
only a manure itself, but is specially useful to mix with moist
superphosphate and other artificial manures, to make them dry enough and
bulky enough to be easily and evenly distributed by the drill.
Artificial manures, so mixed with these ashes, or dry, charred earth,
are less likely to injure the seed than when sown with the seed in the
drill-rows, unmixed with some su