The Canadian Hokticultukist. 235 



bearing. If none of my northern friends have yet tried the Weaver Plum, I 

 think they might safely venture on one or two. It fruited with me last year 

 for the first, and is the first meaty greenish plum I have been able to grow. 

 The quality is excellent, apparently a grand acquisition to our small list of 

 fleshy plums. But I see I am doing the very thing I promised not to do, 

 so I will close before I get my friends into trouble. 



Renfrew, July 4, i8go. A. A. WRIGHT. 



THE MERITS OF WOOD ASHES. 



IN an essay read before the American Horticultural Society at the Cleve - 

 land, Ohio, meeting a few years ago, Mr. J. M. Smith gave an account 



of the means employed for the prevention of the evil effects of a pro- 

 longed drought. Among these means a free use of wood ashes was named 

 as one of the simplest and most effective. 



Recently Mr. Smith has made a comparative test of the effects of wood 

 ashes and barn-yard manure on a scale large enough to show results that 

 are more than an " indication." Two acres lying side by side were treated 

 exactly alike in every respect except that one was manured with unleached 

 wood ashes, and the other with stable manure. Mr. Smith reports the 

 results of the trial to the Prairie Farmer as follows : 



The acre fertilized with ashes yielded fifty-one bushels the most, and if 

 there was any difference in quality it was in favor of those that had the 

 ashes. Now, the fair inference would be that the ashes were much the better 

 manure for potatoes. Let us look a little further : The last half of May and 

 the first half of June were wet and cold, and so far the two acres seemed to 

 keep just about even. After June 15th the weather became very dry, and 

 there was little rain upon the plants until they were ripe. Very soon after 

 the ground began to get dry it could be plainly seen that those manured 

 from the compost-heap were suffering from want of rain, while those manured 

 with ashes were growing very rapidly. This continued until they were 

 ripe. 



The simple fact is, potatoes or strawberries manured with ashes stand 

 drought that would be ruinous to crops fertilized with any manure I have 

 ever tried. To this fact I attribute the failure of the compost-heap acre to 

 hold its own with the acre upon which ashes were used. I have tried the 

 experiment many times, always with precisely the same result, provided we 

 had a dry season during the growth of the crop. I do not know but the rule 

 will hold good with all farm and garden crops, but with the above named 

 there is no doubt. I do not underrate ashes as manure. I have used them 

 in preference to any fertilizer I could get for potatoes for many years. 



