The Canadian Horticulturist. 227 



medium-sized fruit is Victoria, also known in Canada as Ruby Castle or Raby 

 Castle. The bush is a very strong grower, upright and very productive. The 

 cluster of well-formed buds at the end of the shoot, the bluish gray color of the 

 buds and the rather pale green foliage are quite characteristic of this variety. 

 The clusters are of good medium length. The fruit is late in coloring, has a 

 bright red color, and will keep on the bushes in good condition later than either 

 Cherry or Red Dutch. 



The market demand for white currants is quite limited, and the number of 

 new white varieties is not so great as the number of newly-introduced red sorts. 

 White (irape and White Dutch still remain the standard sorts. White Imperial 

 has not yet fruited here. Caywood Seedling is a very productive white kind, 

 with spreading or drooping branches. The fruit is large, attractive and of good 

 quality. Marvin's Seedling is similar in color to White Grape, larger in size and 

 rather more acid. White Versaillaise has long, well-formed clusters slightly 

 darker in color than White Grape ; berries larger, less juicy and about the same 

 in acidity as White Grape. — W^ P., in Garden and Forest. 



COMPOSITION AND ACTION OF WOOD ASHES. 



" Leached and unleached Canada ashes have approximately the following 

 percentage composition : 



Sand, earth and charcoal 



Moisture 



Carbonate, with some hydrate of lime . 



Potash [chiefly as carbonate] 



Phosphoric acid 



Other matters by difference 



" It appears from this statement that more than half the weight of both 

 leached and unleached ashes consists of lime, partly as hydrate, but chiefly as 

 carbonate ; the same material chemically as chalk or limestone, but finer, and 

 so likely to be quicker in its action. 



" It has long been known that chalk or limestone may benefit both very 

 heavy and very light lands, making the one looser in texture and less apt to 

 puddle, and the other closer and more compact. It does this in the one case 

 by separating the particles of sticky clay, and in the other by filling up the 

 interspaces of a coarse soil. A writer on agriculture in the early part of the 

 last century says of chalk : ' it causes great fertility, especially on such lands as 

 are apt to lose the riches of dungs laid on them, and to forget in a little time 



