A WINTER DUTY It is refreshing to deal with flowers
while we are in the grip of winter—to think on " fantastic summer heat " while we " wallow naked in December snows." And, more than
this, the sowing time comes upon most of us long before we expect it. After all, a good many hardy annuals can be sown, and are wisely sown, in February. How many of us omit the early spring opportunities as we omit the winter duties ? Among these the one most constantly omitted, and often unrealized, is the treatment of fruit trees growing in cut grass. It is a more or less new discovery, but already a well-ascertained truth, that the trees bear better—it may be two or three times more—if given the right artificial manures in winter. They cannot do well, if mown grass is over their roots, without it. We have the authority of that charming essayist as well as learned grower, Mr. Bunyard, for the verdict that the most useful of the artificials for trees so circumstanced is kainit.
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