77 



Iiay is an unkiiowu quantity in these experiments, and will change the 

 results somewhat. 



Orange culture. — Mr. J. H. Gates, of Pilatka, Florida, inquires 

 what manures are best adapted to the rapid growth of his orange grove. 

 The following points were submitted in answer : 



The orange belongs to a class of plants the ashes of which arc rich in 

 alkalies and alkaline earths. This indil;ates a demand for potash, lime, 

 &c., in the soil. . If the ground was originally pine forest, it will be 

 improved by the liberal use of wood-ashes, soap-boilers' refuse, or other 

 manures rich in alkaline matter. If, however, the soil was hard-wood 

 forest, and has not been exhausted by grain-cropping, it probably con- 

 tains all the alkaline matter that the grove will demand. 



If the subsoil rests on limestone it will be sufliciently rich in lime for 

 the supply of the trees ; but if it-is a stiff, tenacious clay, it v.ill require 

 (after thorough underdrainiug) a good dressing of fresli slaked lime to 

 render the clay friable and easily pulverized. Barn-yard manure, unless 

 it is well composted or thoroughly rotted, is not well adapted to tree 

 culture. Leaves, composted with three or four times their weight of 

 swamp-muck, make the best tree manure we can command. If leaves 

 are hard to obtain, the i)roportion of muck may be increased without 

 material injury. 



Guano, from the rich supply of phosphates which it furnishes, is bet- 

 ter calculated to promote the growth of seeds in plants, than to develofv 

 wood ; consequently it has never been a very ijopular txee manure. If 

 the climate will permit the growth of some crop which, like clover, will 

 act as a mulch at first, and afterward as a manure, it will greatly pro- 

 mote the growth of the grove. 



Wood ashes. — In answer to several inquiries concerning the value 

 of wood ashes as a manure, we reply that ashes from the wood of the 

 hickory, sugar-maple, elm, &c., contain about 50 per cent, of potash com- 

 pounds, consisting chiefly of combinations with carbonic acid and silica, 

 while the ashes of pine wood will rarely yield more than 20 per cent. 

 Ashes saved from clearings often contain earth mixed with them, iu 

 gathering the remains from tires. When wood is used for burning lime, 

 the ashes are often put into the market largely mixed with that sub- 

 stance. Sifted coal-ashes are sometimes used to adulterate wood ashes, 

 and the fraud can hardly be detected by the eye. 



Leached ashes always retain a portion of potash, usually iu combina- 

 tion with silica or phosphoric acid. These comijounds are slowly soluble 

 in water, and, therefore, are not removed in leaching, but they are valu- 

 able, especially to grain crops and grasses. Ashes, whether leached or 

 unleached, should never be suffered to go to waste. Even coal ashes 

 maybe used to good advantage on stiff-clay soils. Their effect, however, 

 is more mechanical than chemical. 



Bones and bone-bieai,. — ^The complaint of fraud in the manufacture 

 of commercial manures gives rise to manj^ questions concerning the 

 manufacture of bones into some available form by the farmer himself. 

 This is a very important subject, and yet it is one beset by many difti- 

 culties. To a majority of farmers in this country bones are the only 

 reliable source of supply to replace the phosphates carried away by the 

 annual exportation of grain, beef, and pork. But bones broken into 

 fragments of not more than an ounce in weight each will, under ordi- 

 nary circumstances, remain in the soil undecomposed for half a century, 

 and consequently but little benefit will be derived from their use. Bones, 



