DYING TREES IN KENSINGTON GARDENS. 265 



of the faithful, "practical," and obstinate old gardener 

 who so heartily despises the "fads" of scientific theorists. 



When natural mowing-machines are used, i.e., cattle and 

 sheep, their droppings restore all that they take away from 

 the soil, minus the salts contained in their own flesh, or the 

 inil'k that may be removed. An interesting problem has 

 been for some time past under the consideration of the 

 more scientific of the Swiss agriculturists. From the 

 mountain pasturages only milk is taken away, but this 

 milk contains a certain quantify of phosphates, the resto- 

 ration of which must be effected sooner or later, or the 

 produce will be cut off, especially now that so much con- 

 densed milk is exported. 



The wondrously rich soil of some parts of Virginia has 

 been exhausted by unrequited tobacco crops. The quan- 

 tity of ash displayed on the burnt end of a cigar demon- 

 strates the exhausting character of tobacco crops. That 

 which the air and water supplied to the plant is returned 

 as invisible gases during combustion, but all the ash that 

 remains represents what the leaves have taken from the 

 soil, and what should be restored in order to sustain its 

 pristine fertility. 



The West India Islands have similarly suffered to a vejy 

 serious extent on account of the former ignorance of the 

 the sugar planters, who used the canes as fuel in boiling 

 down the syrup, and allowed the ashes of those canes to be 

 washed into the sea. They were ignorant of the fact that 

 pure sugar maybe taken away in unlimited quantities with- 

 out any impoverishment of the land, seeing that it is com- 

 posed merely of carbon and the elements of water, all de- 

 rivable from air and ruin. All that is needed to maintain 

 the perennial fertility of a sugar plantation is to restore the 

 stems and leaves of the cane, or carefully to distribute their 

 ashes. 



The relation of these to the soil of the sugar plantations is 

 precisely the same as that of the leaves of the trees to the 

 soil of Kensington Gardens, and the reckless removal of 

 either must produce the same disastrous consequences. 



