26 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY, 
On potash depend the production of sugar and the delicate 
flavours and scents which make so large a part of the attractiveness 
of our fruits. It is seldom absent in ordinary garden soils, and the 
lime -dressing should liberate it in sufficient quantities as a rule. 
Kainit is of course the usual source, but in these days gardeners have 
to rely largely upon wood ashes. 
The manures mentioned above are mostly things which require 
to be purchased, but there are many domestic waste products which, 
usually thrown away or burnt, may be used with great advantage 
in the fruit garden. All bones, after soup has been made of them, 
are a valuable, if slow, source of phosphate and should be saved and 
dug into the soil around the larger trees. Any fur or wool waste 
(old wool rugs beyond hope), rabbit fur, or wool scraps, soot and 
feathers will all be valuable in the soil and can be dug in during the 
winter. Ashes from wood fires should be carefully saved in the dry 
and spread around the trees in winter. Carbide waste from acetylene 
plants as mentioned above provides a source of lime and disposes of 
a disagreeable residue. 
It is not often realized how much the soils of the garden may be 
improved by a few years' careful attention. The action of lime 
in improving the mechanical state of a sticky clay is well known ; the 
addition of leaf-mould or peat to a dry hot soil will aid immensely 
in the development of those late fruits which so often suffer from 
drought in autumn, and are thus hard and gritty or badly shrivelled 
when the time comes to eat them. While on this subject it may be 
well to call attention to the danger of neglecting fruit trees after the 
crop is gathered. Often they are left to struggle through an autumn 
drought without so much as a thought. The manures as mentioned 
above will be a great aid, and careful attention to water supply will 
make them more likely to fruit next year. 
Apples, especially those of the Reinette class — ' Blenheim Orange, ' 
' Claygate Pearmain ' — and the like, benefit enormously by an annual 
mulch of leaf-manure, and the later Pears are not less grateful. So 
far we have considered mainly what may be done with our existing 
trees ; there remains the very important question as to how we may 
extend the cultivation of fruit-trees in gardens. In visiting the suburbs 
the fruit advocate is struck by the habit of planting forest -trees in 
small gardens. A fine Beech or Lime will often take up a very large 
part of the garden, and render the soil around very unsuitable for 
other plants. The Bitter Almond too, without which a London 
garden can scarcely exist, is a thing of beauty and a joy for a fortnight, 
but an Apple or Pear in its place would be hardly less beautiful and 
extend its joy into the autumn or winter. Many barren shrubberies 
might be made more valuable by the addition of a few fruit-trees — 
Cherries, Plums, Pears, Crab Apples, &c. In park -planting groups 
of fruit-trees would well replace the forest-trees which custom has 
stereotyped. Beauty and shade would always attend them, and if, 
now and again, fruit was also present it would be all to the good. 
In view of the great destruction of Walnut-trees in France and 
