Time and the Tree 19 



nothing. Nature abhors a vacuum because she 

 cannot fill it. If you dig a gulf you must raise a 

 mountain. If you gather potash in eight-poimd 

 baskets, during the grape harvest, you must de- 

 posit potash long before harvest. ''What!" you 

 exclaim, "a ton of potash! $47.83 buried in the 

 earth! Ruination! I cannot afford it! There 

 is nothing in horticulture at that rate!" Now we 

 know that two tons of grapes contain thirty-nine 

 pounds of potash, eleven pounds of phosphoric 

 acid, and thirty-two pounds of nitrogen; and that 

 most of the crop is water. If we have picked a 

 hundred pounds of potash from the soil we cer- 

 tainly should return a like amount, and well can 

 we afford to. Doubtless there was potash in the 

 soil unavailable as plant-food ; we must keep up the 

 supply. It is only the available potash that feeds 

 the grapes. "The great doctrine of availability," 

 which Webster remarked, with bitterness, was 

 exemplified in the nomination of General Taylor 

 for the presidency and which worked his triimiphant 

 election, is also exemplified in grapes and cherries 

 and all other fruits. You can have them if you 

 make your plant-food supply available. This is 

 the ancient game and play of fruit-growing. You 

 do not put a ton of food into the acre of orchard 

 or vineyard, yet the crop consumes many tons. 

 You gather, say, four tons of grapes or eight tons 

 of cherries to the acre. You scatter perhaps half 

 a ton of fertilizer and plow in a clover crop. 

 Nature returns you fruit of greater weight than 



