COAL ASHES VALUABLE AS MANURE. 



463 



ways be rallied for such delights as their 

 mother Eve knew, in the days of her in- 

 nocence. Hence, we make headway. Our 

 streets get acquainted with new trees ; our 

 walls feel the embrace of new roses, and 

 our gardens get help to smile from new 

 shrubs and flowers. The numbscull, with 

 the solidest wooden head, can feel a little 

 when fine flowers and luscious fruits are 

 put before his eyes ; and hence the ground 

 we gain works in multiplying ratio an- 

 nually. 



Our horticultural society, of about eighty 

 members, though with but few workers, 

 keeps sedulously but silently in motion, 

 aiming, by repeated blows in the same di- 

 rection, to produce an impression. There 

 is evidence that it is effecting something. 

 But I am spinning too long a yarn, and 

 will stop here. J. A. Wight. 



Chicago, Illinois, February, 1849. 



We thank Mr, Wight for his graphic 

 and vivid picture of gardening at Chicago ; 

 one of the most remarkable of all our new 

 western cities. 



It will strike some of our Englishreaders 

 as not a little remarkable, that in a climate 

 so apparently unfavorable in its winter and 

 spring temperature as that of Chicago, so 

 much ran be done ; that pears, apples, 

 plums, etc., can be grown in abundance, 

 and of the finest quality, as open standards, 

 when in their mild climate, walls are al- 

 most everywhere needed to get a ripe fruit 

 of good flavor. This is owing to the tro- 

 pical summers of almost all the United 

 States ; the abundance of sunshine that 

 ripens both fruit and wood so perfectly. 



Chicago is so peculiarly exposed to cold 

 winds, which sweep across a lake surface, 

 almost like that of an ocean in extent, that 

 we commend to all amateurs there the 

 study of the admirable method of protect- 

 ing gardens against high winds, adopted 

 by Mr. Tudor, in his celebrated Nahant 

 residence, near Boston, — and which we 

 have described, in volume ii, page 57. A 

 garden at Chicago, treated in the " Tudor 

 manner," Avould have a climate compara- 

 tively as bland as that of Madeira. Ed. 



COAL ASHES VALUABLE AS MANURE. 



BY WEST JERSEY. 



Sir — Can you give some of the readers of 

 the Horticulturist information of the virtues 

 of anthracite coal ashes, their chemical na- 

 ture, their strength, compared with wood 

 ashes, and to what soils or plants they are 

 particularly suitable ? 



I do not remember seeing anywhere a 

 statement of their qualities, except a late 

 remark in your monthly, that thay are a 

 good dressing for cherry trees. It is the 

 prevalent opinion here, that they are abso- 

 lutely good for nothing as a manure ; and, 



consequently, they find their last resting 

 place in the street. 



Our soil is light and sandy. The farm- 

 ers just here prefer lime and ashes, while 

 two or three miles oflf, where it is heavier, 

 they use marl abundantly. We have many 

 old gardens that have been manured so 

 often they are too stimulant, and cause the 

 produce to " wither away" under our hot 

 suns. I know this can be remedied, by 

 mixing with them a heavier soil, &c.; but 

 I have been wondering, lately, whether 



