THE SECRETARY'S PORTFOLIO. 171 



So much for Mr. Carter's experience. As for my own, I find the trees which 

 last spring were treated with ashes and potash, arc about to bloom in a very 

 promising way ; and the bloom is not of the kind that wholly possesses the tree 

 and suggests sickness or decay, but that healthy distribution over all portions of 

 all the trees which warrant fruit growth and maturity. I cannot say it is the 

 potash and the working of the soil that has brought about the change, because 

 the trees have been barren since 1872; but if, after farther applying potash in 

 the form of ashes and the muriate, and to that I add a liberal sprinkling of 

 superphosphate of lime, to the extent of twenty pounds to the tree of a foot 

 diameter, this spring and summer, I not only get a good crop this year but a 

 fair crop next, I shall attribute the improvement to the application of mineral 

 fertilizers, and I shall regard it as pretty conclusively proved that why our 

 orchards fail to be thrifty, and continue for several years in succession barren 

 of fruit, is due to the fact that potash and phosphoric acid and their compounds- 

 having been exhausted from the soil, they must be restored to it before we can 

 count on annual crops. 



Knowing and gratefully acknowledging the extent to which horticultural and 

 agricultural progress and improvement are due to the patriotism, liberality and 

 good sense of gentlemen and city amateur farmers and gardeners, who are able 

 and willing to take money risks in experiments of this kind, I respectfully sug- 

 gest to those east and west, who have apples and other sour fruit trees that 

 persistently refuse to bear, that they try the salts of potash and the phosphates 

 of lime in the way and manner suggested and explained above. 



British agriculturists have for a long time been sensible that even with the 

 advantages of their system of husbandry, which returns as far as possible to the 

 soil every substance taken therefrom, it is rapidly becoming exhausted of nitro- 

 gen and phosphoric acid and their compounds, and they have, with character- 

 istic foresight, and the aid of an enlightened government, secured a practical 

 monopoly of the known guano deposits of the world. — B. F. J. in Countn 

 Gentleman. 



BUY OF RESPONSIBLE MEN". 



"I think the lona grape is a failure," said a friend to me the other day. 



"Why," I answered, "as a grape for the table nothing can surpass it." 



"Well, I bought two vines four years ago of a man who sold trees and vines 

 about here, and for two years they have borne grapes. I ordered the lona 

 because it was cracked up as something extra, but I find it a poor thing and 

 very sour." 



"Are you sure you have the lona," I remarked. 



"Yes, for the man warranted his stuff here to name." 



"Who was he?" 



"I don't remember his name. He was not a resident here, but seemed like 

 a fine fellow." 



" Let me see your vine. I am anxious to see if you really have the lona, 

 and what color is the grape ?" 



I went and saw the vine, and was told that the grape was a small, black var- 

 iety, growing thick in the bunch, and was quite prolific. 



