THE ASH HEAP AND HEN MANURE. 



315 



both ends of the material, wrapping mode- 

 rately tight, continuing upward and cover- 

 ing all the incision but leaving out the bud 

 and the piece of footstalk, and finishing with 

 a knot at the upper end. 



The tying begins at the lower end of the 

 bud with the stock. Any soft material an- 

 swers for tying ; woolen yarn, narrow strips 

 of calico or muslin, etc. When much bud- 

 ding is to be done, prepared basswood bark 

 is used, or raffia, which is to be had in the 

 seed stores. The latter is prepared from 

 the leaves of a kind of the palm tree found 

 on the island of Madagascar. 



The short piece of leafstalk will remain 

 green, and in a week or ten days will drop 

 off on being touched. If it dries up and 

 sticks fast after the ten days have passed, 

 the bud has failed. But if the bark can 

 still be lifted the tree may be budded again, 

 selecting a new place on the stem. 



The tying may remain from two to three 



weeks, but will need occasional looking 

 after, so that it may be prevented from cut- 

 ting into the tree, which it is apt to do if the 

 tree is growing rapidly. In that case, it 

 may be untied in a week or so, and tied 

 again but less tightly. 



After the final untying, nothing more 

 needs to be done until the next spring. 

 About the time the sap begins to move, the 

 top of the young tree (or branch) is to be 

 cut off about three inches above the bud. 

 The sprouts from the stock will then start, 

 even more readily than the bud, but they 

 must be rubbed off from time to time, so is 

 to throw the sap and the force of the 

 growth to the bud ; and in July or August, 

 the stub — the three inches of wood left above 

 the bud in spring — is to be cut off with a 

 sloping cut on the side opposite the bud. 

 This wound will soon heal over and the work 

 will be perfected. — Exchange. 



THE ASH HEAP AND HEN MANURE. 



THE horticulturist should make an 

 economical disposition of two things 

 that are generally regarded as household 

 nuisances — the ash heap and the droppings 

 of the poultry house. There is nothing that 

 will lighten and loosen a stiff soil so quickly 

 as coal ash si f tings. Mr. Allen, the cele- 

 brated bulb culturist, of Long Island, thinks 

 there is nothing so good in its mechanical 

 effects and he uses large quantities on his 

 lily beds. Take your ashes every morning 

 as they come from the stoves and before 

 they get wet, sift them through a coal sifter, 

 the coarse part you use on your walks about 

 the premises ; the fine, dust-like portion you 

 carry to the henhouse and scatter it over the 

 droppings. It will absorb the gases that 

 arise, keep the floor dry and the air pure — 



a sort of dry earth system. Every few 

 weeks when the weather permits, the con- 

 tents of the hen house are wheeled out and 

 spread as a top dressing jver the beds of 

 perennials. Will it do any good? Yes, 

 four-fold. 



Firstly, it has charitably aided that ash 

 heap to lose its existence ; secondly, your 

 hens shall feel better and your labors shall 

 be rewarded with more eggs ; thirdly, it does 

 the soil of that flower bed good by loosen- 

 ing it, and fourthly, it does the plants good 

 by feeding them. Why, next June the 

 paeonias will fairly clap their hands with joy. 

 Did you ever dream that a four-fold bless- 

 ■in^f lay concealed in your ash heap? — Pa. 

 Horticultural Society Report. 



