OPEN LETTERS. 



255 



trees we have had under cultivation. I am 

 quite sure they would well withstand a clim- 

 ate much farther north than even Port 

 Elgin. Please bear in mind that I am 

 speaking of the American sweet chestnut, 

 never having had much experience with the 

 Japan varieties. 



For family use there is no reason why 

 every farmer or farmer's boy should not 

 have a few nut-bearing trees of his own 

 growing, and we know of no more enjoyable 

 thing than a plentiful supply of sweet chest- 

 nuts with which to treat our acquaintances 

 when they make us a friendly visit. 



Port Elgin, Ont. J. H. Wismer. 



Analysis of Certain Brands of Lye. 



In order to furnish information to orchard- 

 ists regarding the relative strengths or 

 values of certain lyes used in Canada in 

 rnaking spraying solutions for the destruc- 



tion of scale insects and cleaning the bark 

 before the foliage appears, analyses have 

 recently been made in our laboratories of 

 the following brands : Gillett's Perfumed 

 100 % Lye, Greenbank's Soapmaker, Bab- 

 bit's Pure Potash or Lye, Rock Potash. 



ANALYSES. 



Alkali as Alkali as 



Caustic Garb. 



Soda. Soda. 



Gillett's Perfumed 100 % 92.48 2.77 



Babbitt's Pure Potash or Lye ... 85. 1 5 4.98 



Greenbank's Soapmaker 7i-44 S-5i 



There is no potash in Babitt's brand, the 

 alkali present being soda. 



A sample of rock potash obtained from a 



wholesale drug firm in Montreal gave the 



following data : — 



Alkali as caustic potash 36.72% 



" as carbonate potash 43.24% 



Total potash present, calculated as oxide 



(K2O) 69.31% 



Frank T. Shutt, Chemist. 

 Dominion Experimental Farms. 



©jpdo^ L^-^t^i^s, 



Hardy Nuts. 



Sir, — In your question drawer a Mr. Kidd asks 

 for information as to hardy nuts, etc. Mr. W. T. 

 Macoun, in his reply, speaks of the filbert and 

 hazel as not likely to set fruit in the neighborhood 

 of Toronto, and gives hjs reasons. 



I have grown the common English hazel for sev- 

 eral years in the township of Tuckersmith, and the 

 trees bear plentiful crops of nuts every year. The 

 experience of several of my neighbors accords with 

 mine. 



Mr. Macoun may be correct in his remarks as 

 applied to Ottawa, but as Toronto is in about the 

 same latitude as Tuckersmith, I fancy the hazel 

 will fruit there as well as it does in this locality ; 

 at any rate the cultivation of the hazel tree should 

 not be condemned because it does not succeed at 

 Ottawa. Yours respectfully, 



Egmonville, Ont. Edwin Cresswell. 



Tulip Culture. 



Dear Sir, — I understand from a Holland agent 

 for the above bulbs that it is a common complaint 

 all through America with the gardeners and flor- 

 ists that they cannot grow the double tulips with 

 long enough stems to be of much service as cut 

 flowers. This agent informed me this spring 

 that he cannot sell the bulbs on this account, al- 



though they are prized more by florists than the 

 single varieties and wouid be in demand if they 

 could be grown with long stems like those grown 

 by me and which he had seen here this spring. 

 For the above reason I had the accompanymg 

 photograph taken for your valued journal. There 

 are eight varieties in the bouquet, both doubles and 

 singles, with stems from twelve to seventeen 

 inches in length ; they were grown in the following 

 manner : — 



The bulbs were potted in the usual way, into six 

 inch pots, 3 bulbs in each ; the crown or bulbs out 

 of the soil ; the soil was a rich composite, three 

 parts were of decayed sods cut from an old sandy 

 loam pasture, and one part was composed of leaf 

 mould, river sand and bone meal all mixed 

 together. When all were potted, the pots were 

 thoroughly watered, and I then appropriated a 

 cold frame which was set up in a sheltered situation 

 facing the sun. In the bottom of the frame I 

 placed about two inches of sifted coal ashes, the 

 pots were then placed on top of the ashes as close 

 as they would set together ; then they were cover- 

 ed about three inches deep with the sifted ashes 

 and left until the first severe frost, when all was 

 covered over with about a foot deep of coarse farm 

 yard manure ; there was no sash put on the frame. 

 The first of the pots were brought into the green- 

 house about Christmas, the blooms were about per- 

 fect in about 6 or 7 days after being taken in, so 



