160 



simple but very safe method, every plant should grow and in a 

 few years form a uniform and profitable plantation. 



In conclusion, I might mention the time-saving plan of always 

 keeping back a few plants in pots so that in the event of any 

 dying out, they can be renewed at once. 



MANURING TREES. 



It may seem a simple thing to manure a tree, yet the great 

 majority of people who take to the idea of helping their trees 

 with some manure, dump a heap against the trees. The majority, 

 of course, do not manure their trees except by accident, expecting 

 the soil to give crops out of good nature without asssitance. Ba- 

 nanas are commonly treated thus, but the effect on such, being 

 herbaceous plants, is to bring out roots high up, which when the 

 heap of manure decays down are left dry and so are wasted. But 

 on many trees, like orange and cocoa, the effect of a heap of 

 manure placed against them is injurious. The most vital parts 

 of such trees is the neck, that part where the roots start from the 

 stem. The manure softens and tends to rot the bark there, en- 

 courage insects and grubs to attack the bark, while manure 

 there can do no possible good. Trees take up their food ma- 

 terial from all those little fine roots that start off from the large 

 roots, and which are especially plentiful at the very end of the 

 roots. And it is where these fine roots are that the manure 

 should be placed, preferably in light open soils by spreading it as 

 a mulch, and in heavy clay soils by digging the manure in and 

 mixing it with the soil. 



In mulching also, which is only a form of manuring, the mulch 

 should not be put close to the banana, cocoa, coffee or coconut 

 tree root ; a clear circle should be left close to the stem. — The 

 Tropical Agriculturi'st. 



DRY ROT OF THE IRISH POTATO. 



The Nebraska Experiment Station has just issued Bulletin 134, 

 on "A Dry Rot of the Irish Potato Tuber." 



For several years the department of Agricultural Botany has 

 been engaged in a study of Irish potato diseases in Nebraska. 

 Among these the dry rot of the tuber is one of the most important. 

 Buyers and commission men have reported losses, during storage, 

 of from 20 to 60 per cent, due to this dry rot. In fact, the most 

 important feature of this dry rot is the fact that it forces the im- 

 mediate sale of the crop as soon as dug. This tends to demor- 

 alize the market and places the grower at the mercy of the buyers, 

 since he is himself afraid to store his crop and wait for better 

 -prices. 



