262 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
APRIL 24 
^rboritultural. 
THE KtELREUTFRIA PANICULATA. 
Some plants have become generally known 
through the medium of catalogues and period¬ 
icals, and yet are seldom seen on the lawn. 
Excuses might be accepted for this, if the 
plants were Insignificant, ornamentally con¬ 
sidered, but in the case of the Kmlreuteria this 
is far from trua. 
Nor is it a new plant. Over a hundred years 
ago.it was brought from China and grown 
with due appreciation iu England. Difficulty 
of propagation cannot be offered as a reason 
for iLs neglect, since it both seeds freely and 
germinates readily. Propagation from seed, 
however, seems to be the successful method of 
growing It. The lack of appreciation in such 
cases cau only be excused ou a plea of ignor¬ 
ance. People have simply not seen it, or em¬ 
ployed its excellent qualities. No other 
excuse can be rendered. It is, In fact, a thrifty 
rapid-growing tree, possessed of ull the hotter 
qualities that characterize our choicest class 
of hardy ornameutai plants, Practically 
speaking, it is quite hardy in every situation 
wherein 1 have seen it tested. As it is also 
easily transplanted, it will bo readily seen how 
useful a lawn tree it becomes. Its size at ma¬ 
turity is medium, and its general contour low 
and umbrella-Hke. 
The entire aspect of the tree is feathery and 
graceful, full of sunlight rather than shade. 
Indeed the foliage is very charming in appear¬ 
ance during the greater part of the year. All 
the interior of the body Of the tree is devoid 
of leaves which cluster in leathery tufts or 
masses on the outer portions of the brunches. 
The leaves proper are large and pinnule, that 
is, consist of a number of leallots arranged on 
either side Of a leaf stalk, as in the Ailanllms. 
This openness of leaf as well as the general 
light-yellow hue, gives rise to a warm sunny 
tone, very peculiar us seen upon the lawn. 
Such trails mako the appearance of the KobI- 
reuteria very effective contrasted with a mass 
of the darker foliage of other deciduous trees— 
that of the Norway Maple, for instance. 
Another interesting feature of the Koelrcu- 
teriaisite flowers. Of a beautiful yellow color, 
they stand in large pauiclcs of inflorescence, 
very different in appearance from tho droop¬ 
ing yellow flowers ot the Laburnum. 
by no means adding to the ornamental appear¬ 
ance of the tree. One of the capsules and a 
single seed, of life size, are shown on this 
page. It is thoroughly hardy with us. 
SEED ANJ) CAl’SULK OF KUJLREOTERIA l’ANI- 
CULATA.—EHOM NATURE.—FIG. 121 . 
Another special feature of the large open 
cluster borne by the Ku lreutei ia is the fact that 
tbej' uppear on u fair-sizud tree in July. Few 
fair-sized trees hear flowers conspicuous either 
for color or magnitude, and 6till fewer bloom 
as lute as July. We find, therefore a double at¬ 
traction In the flowers of the Kulreuteria. 
The fresh warmth of the yellowish color.of 
the younger portions of tho bark is also pleas¬ 
ing, bo that, to sum up, wo find in this tree the 
following excellent qualities, viz.: warm, 
Bunny-tiuted, feathery foliage worn asacrown 
on more or less naked branches, bright-colored 
bark aud lovely yellow flowers borne in July. 
Other valuable Jqualitics of easy propagation 
and transplanting as well as hardiness and fair 
vigor combine to make the Kmlreuteria a tree 
that should win for itself invariably a conspic¬ 
uous place. 
There Is a Japanese variety of Kmlreuteria 
panieulata that deserves pussitig mention sim¬ 
ply for its shorter panicles of flowers and 
slightly different general bubit. 
Samuel Parsons, Jr. 
[KudreuU-rlu panfculnln. 
At first glance, it would scarcely appear that 
the Kmlreuteria is a very near relative of the 
Horse Chestnut. They present upon a closer 
scrutiny, however,, so many resemblances 
that botanists class them in the same family j 
viz., Soapberry (Sapindacene). 
The tree from which our drawing was made 
wus planted in the Rural Grounds seven year# 
ago. It is now about seven feet high, showing 
little disposition to increase much in bight. 
The top is spreading, but the branches and 
main stem are crooked and irregular. 
The flowers though Individually small are 
quite showy, as seen in the panicles which are 
liberally produced in early summer. The in¬ 
flated seed-pods persist for a long time, though 
WHAT 
THE TRUE MONEY 
LEACHED ASHES? 
VALUE OF 
PROFESSOR F. 11. 8T0RER. 
Farmers have been so long accustomed to 
compare leached ashes with wood ashes (i. e,, 
“live ashes’') and to regard them In some sort 
an a weaker repiemulative of, or substitute for, 
wood ashes that the real significance of tho 
teachcd product seems to be uot clearly under¬ 
stood. Jn point of fact, leached ashes and 
wood ashes are not comparable as fertilizers. 
They belong to totally distinct classes. Wood 
ashes are clearly to be classed among the po- 
tassic fertilizers, while leached ashes cannot be 
bo classed; they fall naturally among the cal¬ 
careous terlillzers. Wood ashes do indeed cen¬ 
tum other valuable coustllucuta besides potash 
—lime among others—and they have certain 
peculiar qualities which need not bo discussed 
in this connection; but the fact remains that 
they differ bo decidedly from leached ashes 
that the two materials do not admit of any 
close comparison. 
It has long been known to chemists that 
leached aslms contain hardly any potash, and 
this trutli was exhibited most emphatically 
some eight or nine years since by a number of 
analyses made by Professor Johnson, of Now 
llaven. Yet to this day most experiments 
with lcaehcd ashes are made, as they have been 
from, the times of tin; first settlers, with the 
view of testiug tbu old question: “ Are leached 
ashes as good as unleaelicd?" 1 would not iu 
the least undervalue such experiments. It has 
appeared indeed that upon uot a few tolls the 
question here stated lias been answered in the 
affirmative. It is important uuy-wuy for every 
farmer to learn by trial whether his land Is 
specially grateful for Hum, or limo-earbonate. 
for potash salts, or for the caustic, ulkuliuo ef¬ 
fect of wood ashes, and so forth. But there is 
another kind of experiment which might be 
made with leached ashes, which ought to he 
made In many places, aud that is the compari¬ 
son of leached ashes with lime, applied iu va¬ 
rious forms, with the view of obtaining iu the 
cheapest possible way results as good as those 
afforded hy leached ashes. 
Professor Jobuson's analyses show that the 
average composition of leached ashes, as 
brought into New England from Canada, is 
Water. 36.34 
Hand, clay aud charcoal.-. 11.4V 
Jrou made . I io 
Lime.. ut.uy 
MiacnoMu .... 3.30 
i'otaxli iiia soda. i ,#7 
i'UiMUlii/rlo neld. 1.44 
Muljiliurtc ueiU.•. 0,11 
t>roonle acid. 17.4# 
NIUca isoluble). 3.09 
100.00 
Aud that a struck bushel of leached ashes, 
weighing 55 pounds, contains pounds of 
Water... 19.44 
Hiuul, elayuud charcoal. ti.HX 
Ironoxiue. o.sa 
Lime. 14 .,*io 
Maifuesia. l.Hl 
i'oUnli ini l nodu. o .70 
FhoKiihoric mod.... o so 
Mul ldiiirie mod... O.oil 
Uurbouir Held. 9.0I 
Milieu (soluble). l.’ly 
61.00 
In view of these analysts, and of the facts so 
often asserted: 1st, that unleashed ashes have 
been found to be as useful as leached upon 
some soils; and 2d, that excellent results art) 
sometimes obtained by using comparatively 
small quantities of leached ashes iu conjunc¬ 
tion with dung or Borne other fertilizer, it is 
hard to escape the conviction that the fertilizing 
effects of leached ashes must depend primarily 
upon tho 24 or 25 lbs. of carbonate of lime that 
are contained In each biiBhel Of the material. 
The calcareous constituent is so predominant 
and the esteem in which leached ashes arc hold 
Is so great and peculiar, in the localities where 
they are largely used, that It may fairly be in¬ 
ferred that their merit depends chiefly upon 
tho lime-carbonate. But if this inference is 
correct, the question Is at once opened, why 
should not the farmers use other forms of tho 
lime-carbonate, which may bo had at cheap 
rates, ingtead of Importing leached ashes from 
abroad? This Is a question which can bo an¬ 
swered only by experiments, such as can best 
be performed on the largo scale by the fann¬ 
ers themselves, and each of tho experiments 
should he made to last for sevoral years, or until 
a definite result has been reached by means of It. 
Theoretically, the question to be determined 
Is simply: cannot somo cheaper form of car¬ 
bonate of lime bo used to replace leached 
ushes ? Aud if u ohcmiit were to test tho mat¬ 
ter ho would be apt to u»c powdered chalk, or 
porhapa even the prepared chalk called “ whit¬ 
ing," taking for his trial# quantities of chalk 
equal to the amount of limo-carhouate con¬ 
tained In the dressing of leached ashes with 
which the chalk was to be compared. But 
practically the question is not so simple. It 
divides Itself into several subordinate inquiries 
looking to the practicability of getting the use- - 
ful lime compound in some cheaper form than 
chalk, by using shell-lime or some other of the 
cheap limes that are sold for agricultural pur 
poses. 
There are several ways of testing tho mat¬ 
ter, and each of them Is worthy of being tried 
on the large scale in the districts whereleachcd 
ashes are esteemed. One way would be to 
“lime” a part of a field outright, by burying 
small heaps of quick-lime at proper intervals 
upon the field in spring or auttmm. and spread¬ 
ing. as soon us may be practicable, the tine 
powdery product which Is formed after a little 
time from the sluicing of the lime by the mois¬ 
ture of the soil. By dressing another part of 
the field with leached ashes, and leaving yet 
another portion unfertilized, It would be pos¬ 
sible to gain somo just conceptions as to the 
comparative merits of the fertilizers. The 
sluked lime obtained in the manner just de¬ 
scribed, would uaturally soon beconverted into 
carbonate of lime by absorbing carbonic acid 
from the air and from the soil; but the experi¬ 
ment, considered as an experiment, will, of 
course, bo complicated by the fact that for a 
certain space of time caustic limo is in 
coutact with the soil. It could never be 
told with certainly precisely what part of 
the good, or per-.bnuce the bad. effects of tho 
liming operation were to be attributed to ibo 
slaked lime or to the lime-carbonate formed 
from it. Tho failure of such an experiment 
would iu no wise prove that carbonate of lime 
cannot boused to replace leached ashes; but, 
on the other hand, from flic very simplicity of 
the trial, any successful results obtained by 
mean# of it would bo specially valuable; aud 
the chances are that in many cases the lime 
would turn out to be a better application than 
the leached ashes. 
There can hardly bo a doubt that many com 
pftrisons of lima wilh leached ashen, in Urn 
sense of the forugoiug proposal, have actually 
been made already by American farmers, and 
It would bo well if all of them could be col¬ 
lected and studied anew in the light of what ia 
now kuown of the composition and modes of 
action of both these fertilizers. 
Another way of proceeding would be to use 
uir-slakoii lime in comparison with Ibo leached 
aihes, or rather lime which has first been 
slaked with water aud then exposed to the air 
until it has become carbonated, for quick¬ 
lime. is partially carbonated when permitted 
to slake #lowly in the air. Lime is often sold 
iu the slaked condition for agricultural pur¬ 
poses, aud might be spread out in a thin layer, 
in a barn cellar, for example, and left for a 
number of weeks, with occasional laklngs, 
until it had become saturated with carbonic 
acid by absortion from the air. In case only 
quick-limc is procurable, some of it might be 
slaked with about half Its weight of water and 
thou exposed to the air. Allowing for impuri¬ 
ties in tho quick-lime, some 25 or 20 pounds of 
the carbonated product might bo used against 
a bushel of luaehed ashes. 
Still another practical term of comparison 
could be obtained by preparing a quantity of 
compost with lime aud peat and contrasting 
this product with tho leached ashes, though, of 
course, a good part of the benefit derivable 
from the compost might be due to the nitro¬ 
genous matters contained iu it. 
Somo years since an article called oyster- 
shell Hour, obtained by grinding oyster shells 
extremely fine, was procurable iu Boston, 
wlucli might have been used for experiments 
such as are here proposed, though it Is doubt¬ 
ful whether thi# flour would have been found 
so economical a fertilizer as slaked oyster-shell 
lime. No process of mechanical attrition is 
likely to give the liueuess aud openness to iho 
action of the solvents which results from a 
chemical operation #ueh as the slaking ot lime. 
In some experiments of my own, which wore 
published In the Bussey Bulletin, oystcr-shull 
lime gave rather boLtor results than were ob¬ 
tained from this oyster-shell flour. 
The spent lime obtainable from soap boilers 
In the vicinity of cities may very properly be 
used, after it has become dry, for experiments 
such as arc hare suggested. But the spoilt lime 
from gas works would hardly ho fit for those 
trials. Not only doos it contain, when fresh, 
curtain tarry matters and sulphur-compounds 
which are obnoxious to vegetation, but even 
after weathering, it may well retain enough eui- 
pyreumatio matter to hinder tho process of 
nitrification, the promotion of which In the 
soil is probably one great merit of leached 
ashos and tho other forms of carbonate of lime. 
For cases where small quantities of leached 
ashes are used, as whou the fanner puts a 
handful of the material on each hill of corn, It 
would be an easy and not a particularly ex¬ 
pensive matter, to use whiting upon some of 
the rows, instead of the leached ashes. It 
would bo necessary only to determine how 
many handful# go to the bushel, or, more sim¬ 
ply, how much a handful of leached ashes 
weighs, and to apply tho whiting with some 
kind of a spoon which shall give to each hill of 
corn a# much whiting as is equal to 25 -fifty- 
flflhs the weight of a handful of leached ashes. 
With regard to the cost of substituting lime 
for leached ashes, in the manner above indi¬ 
cated, it is easy to show that in many localities 
it could not be great. If it be admitted, for the 
sake of the argument, that tho farmer can ob¬ 
tain quick-lime at eight cents the bushel, 
which is, I believe, a liberal allowance for 
many of the localities on the sea coast where 
leached ashes are largely used; and that each 
bushel of the quick-lime will make two bush¬ 
els of 6lakcd lune of 40 pounds each, and that 
the slaked lime contains no more than ten per 
cent, of impurities, then each bushel of the 
slaked lime would produce, by exposure to the 
soil or air, some IS pounds of carbonate of 
lime, or say twice as much as there is iu a 
bushel of leached ashes. Hence, In so far as 
the lime carbonate is concerned, a bushel of 
the slaked and aired lliue for which four cents 
have been expended, will lie worth as much as 
two bushels of leached ashes, costing some 20 
or 25 cents apiece. 
1 am well aware that in some instances very 
large quantities of leached ashes are applied 
to the land, sometimes as many as 200 or 200 
bushels to tho acre, aud that iu 6uch eases the 
small proportion of potash aud phosphoric 
acid and magnesia which the material con- 
talus may be of real utility to tho crops, con¬ 
sidered simply as sources of plant-food ; but it 
is equally true that there are many cases where 
this view cannot be entertained, aud it is still 
questionable, bow much importance Bhould be 
attached to these incidental constituents, even 
iu those Instances where the largest quantities 
of leached ashes arc. applied to tbu laud. In 
case it should be found In some places that the 
nation of these Incidental constituents cannot 
be spared, it would still be easy, as I’rof. John¬ 
son has urged, to ud<l to the quick lime a 
quantity of Stassfurt potash-gaits, and of bone- 
meal, or another phosphate, In order to make 
good the deficiency. Per contra, it has often 
been noticed that there is little use in repeating 
the application of leached ashes too often. The 
approved method of dealing with them is to 
apply them once i.i a while aud to use other 
fertilizers between times io Keep the land iu 
good heart. This custom, so closely allied to 
the old practice of “marling," goes to 6how 
again that leached ashes arc to be classed as a 
calcareous manure. 
SOME PA8TURE GRASSES, AND THE 
TREATMENT OF PASTURE LANDS. 
uuau l. w vsor. 
Advocating tho division of the farm into 
arable and pasture land, I stated In my article 
on fences, In the Rural for January 24 , that 
the principal objection which could be urged 
against the plan would h« the failure of the 
grass on the pasture land, which, iu course of 
time, would need the intervention of the plow. 
I have several times suggested the plan to 
graziers here, and their reply Inis invariably 
been that exeupt on the swales and low-lauds- 
tho grass will run out hi i-ix or seven years, 
and ou tho moru exposed portions of the fields 
sooner than this. At the same time they 
acknowledge that tho best pastures here have 
not been broken up wilhin forty years. I 
am told that the host pastures In England have 
not been touched by the plow wilhin a hundred 
years. It is acknowledged that one cause of 
the short duration of grasses on pastures is, 
that tho kiiula generally sown are not adapted 
to permanent pastures. It is the general prao- 
tiBo of farmers in the United States in sowing 
their lauds down to grass, whether designed 
for meadow or for pasture, to sow only two 
kinds—timothy aud clover, frequently clover 
alouc. On many farms hero, it is only neces¬ 
sary to sow clover, as by the time it has run 
out, tho Kentucky blue grass will Lave pos¬ 
session. Now. all tbu treatises on grasses 
advise the sowing of a mixture of as 
many as eight or tou different kiuds. Prac¬ 
tically this advice cannot be followed, be¬ 
cause so many are either not to be had in the 
market, or cau be obtained only at prices 
which no man can profitably afford to pay for 
them. In laying down lawns or small plots, 
tho plan would answer; but when it is a mat¬ 
ter of hundreds of acres, It is out of the ques¬ 
tion. There are esseulially only four peren¬ 
nial grasses which are commonly quoted iu 
oar markets. These are timothy, orchard 
grass, red-top, und Randall grass. I propose 
to uotiec them briefly. 
Timothy, 
called cat’B-tail iu Kuglaud, and berd’H grass in 
Now England—a name applied to red top iu 
the Middle States—is probably the most nutri¬ 
tions of all perennials, it is excellent for 
meadows, and makes more aud better hay 
than any other grass. Bnt from Us peculiar 
habit of growth—sprouting at or near the sur¬ 
face of tho ground from a bulb, which being 
cut or bitten off, the plant is destroyed—aud 
from its scanty aftermath and slow growth 
after being cropped, it is poorly adapted to 
permanent pastures. 
Red-top, 
although, I believe, uot liked lu Pennsylvania, 
is a grass uot at all to be despised. It makes 
