Save the leaves.
‘--If Brother Jonathan were as saving of manures as John Bull is, he would be a better farmer. No one knows until he has seen it how careful English and European farmers and gardeners are of everything which can be converted into manure; and this is one ground of their superiority in agriculture. Now let us repeat what we have often said, that few things are more valuable for fertilizing purposes than decayed leaves. They are hardly inferior to barnyard manure. Gather them up now, this very month of November, before they are covered by the snow. They are abundant everywhere, lying in heads and windrows in the forest and by the roadside and by the fences in every yard.--The wood-lot should not be stripped clean of them; but doubtless every farmer's land contains more of them here and there than he can find time to cart home. Gather them up by raking or by sweeping with a large birch broom. Stack them and pack them in the large wagon, adding side-boards as high as convenient; you will hardly get too heavy a load. Cart them home and use them as bedding for cattle and horses; use them for compost in the stable-yard; use them to protect tender grape-vines and shrubs and plants in winter. Strawberry patches will fairly sing for joy under such a feathery blanket. By all means save the leaves and use them.--’ American Agriculturist.
