OCR Text |
Show Tue inventive genius of the Con - necticut Ya-jkee, and bis happy fac- ulty for utilizing everything, have 1 combined in devising a new method of cultivating lruit trees. It is called "hen culture," and id simply this: corn is planted uucier the trees, and then the hens are turned into the orchard. In scratching up the "corn they not only keep the soil loose and mellow, but also fiud and devour quantities of worms, and thus pre vent them from injuring the trees. Hens havo heretofore been considered wilful, maiiciuus aud perverse enemies ene-mies to tho garden, but it looks as il Yankee ingenuity would transform trans-form them fr.im the fruitgrower's fruit-grower's cwrdo into his blessing The hen possessing a good deal of intelligence-, there is danger that slie will soon learn that in scratching for the festive worm she is actually pleasing her proprietor, in which case her natural perverseness would lead her to starve rather than stir a toe in the orchard. However, as the Connecticut man has done so much towards utilizing a necessary evil, let us hope that he will devise a plan lor making it lasting by keeping the fowl in ignorance. |