■784 DR. CHASE'S BEGIPE8. 



nater point is the place for the largest portion of the fertilizers to be spread. 

 Feed your fruit trees where the fibers of the roots are. 



Swamp Muck, Lime and Ashes, a Valuable Manure for 

 Fruit Trees. — " I.ucky is he," says a writer, who owns a reclaimed swamp 

 of muck, for he goes on to say, " If this is thrown out in a heap and mixed 

 with lime it forms a stimulant to fruit trees which cannot harm, but never fails 

 to invigorate in a wonderful manner, etc., to which I would say, use ashes also 

 with the lime, in about equal proportions, and as freely as you can afford it, 

 io be mixed between layers of the muck, in filling up. In the end, to be finely 

 mixed before applying. 



Ashes— Their Value in Orchards and Garden.— A gardener 

 realized the value of ashes to be so great in the garden and orchard that he 

 J'^cently recommended, through the Rural ^ew Yorker, that even the trim- 

 mings from apple trees, as soon as dry enough, with all weeds and other rub- 

 bish, be burned "for the fertilizing matter they contain." He gives a case 

 where the trimmings of an orchard and the rubbish about had been burned, 

 and the ashes put upon the outer roots of the trees to their great advantage, 

 a.'id squashes grew in great abundance on the ground where they were burned; 

 aad for experiment "a hill was planted ten feet off, manured with a small 

 quantity of the ashes, and another with horse manure. The hill with the ashes 

 grew three times as great as the other, and was twice as productive." Cer- 

 tainly a fair test. 



Remarks. — The immortal Liebig, many years ago, pointed out the im- 

 portance of potash to the soil for grain, tobacco, hemp, etc., and from this 

 time on, the enterprising farmer has been using it more or less, according to 

 his convenience of obtaining it, and means to purchase with, etc., until now, 

 lime, ashes, and the nitrate of soda from South America, plaster, phosphates, 

 «tc., all come in to give a full supply. So fully was the editor of the Scientijio 

 American long ago satisfied of the importance of potash, lime, etc., for renew- 

 ing the growth of old fruit trees, he gives us an experiment of his as follows. 

 He says: 



"Some twenty-five years ago, we treated an old hollow pippin apple tree 

 as follows: The hollow, to the height of 8 feet, was filled and rammed with a 

 compost of wood ashes, garden mould and a little waste lime. The filling was 

 securely fastened in by boards. The next year the crop of sound fruit was 16 

 bushels from an old shell of a tree that had borne nothing of any account 

 for some time. But the strangest part was what followed. For seventeen 

 years after filling, the old tree continued to flourish and bear well." 



Remarks.— Thxia it appears, it makes no difference whether the potash 

 in the ashes, with the lime, reach the tree through its roots or by absorp- 

 tion from the hollow of the old, rotting and decaying body. It has also 

 been abundantly proved that even by putting a mixture of wood and coai 

 ashes alone around the stems or trunks and roots of fruit trees, vines, cur- 

 rant and other fruit bushes, in early spring, has generally greatly benefited 

 .apples, peaches, grapes, etc., both in quality and quantity, and the trees, 

 shrubs, vines, etc., last and bear much longer for it. Then, as it pays, iu 

 '*^\ Doints let it be done properly, and at the right time — "early spring." 



