Rensselaer Republican, Volume 12, Number 14, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 December 1879 — Gather the Fallen Leaves. [ARTICLE]

Gather the Fallen Leaves.

If there is one thing of which the gardener is not likely to nave too much, it is leaves, and the time expended in gathering them is time well employed. Their value is admitted in a general way, but few are aware how valuable they are. Let us see. If we would know the best covering for half hardy plants, and for tender seedlings, go to nature. In her gardening sne uses leaves; how lightly they lie over the most delicate plants, their elasticity, or springiness, keeping the heaviest snow from doing injury. If there is danger that the leaves may blow away from the bed lay brush upon them, or, in the absence of this, scatter a little earth over them; anything to hold them until ' the upper surface leaves become flattened down and they are safe. Then for hot-beds, mixed with an equal bulk, or one half their bulk of manure, they give a more useful and more lasting heat than clear manure. In cold frames, if plants such as violets, or Holland bulbs, are in them, to be forced into an early spring bloom, fill up the frame with leaves and cover with boards. In the spring remove the boards and leaves, put on the sashes, and bloom will soon follow. If cold frames are to be sown in early spring, fill up with leaves, cover with boards, and the ground, when wanted, will be unfrozen. In the stable, the pig-sty, the sheep-barn, or wherever animals are wintered, no more cleanly or comfortable bedding than leaves can be given. These leaves, when saturated with urine, form a rich addition to the

compost heap. Why? There is a general notion that leaves make good manure. while few think that their value is due to the ashes they contain. They are very rich in ash. Fallen leaves, when burned, give from four to five times as much ashes as the heart-wood at the tree which bore them. “But we do not burn the leaves.” Tee we do—practically. In the compost the deeay is a slow combustion; the whole texture of the leaf is broken up, and the ash, not having been exposed to the heat of burning, u really in a better condition as a fertiliser than ordinary wood ashes. Leaves are often spoken of—and truly—as the lungs of the tree. It is not far out of the way to liken the leaves to salt works. In salt works a weak brine from salt-springs, or from the sea, is exposed to the neat of the sun in shallow tanks, and when thus concentrated by evaporation, is transferred to other tanks or kettles where, by artificial heat, the remaining water is evaporated and the solid salt remains. The roots of the tree take up water which has several of the solid matters of the soil in solution—a weak —very weak—“ brine,” asit were. The use of some of these matters we know, others, so far as known, are useless to the tree —but are still taken up. This solution from the soil at length reaches the leaves, where most of the water passes off into the air—slowly, but as certainly as if it had been boiled in a salt kettle, while the solid matter mostly remains in the leaves. When the leaves are burned, this solid matter apEi as ash. That this is so—that the amount of ash in the leaves is due b evaporation of the water from the soil is seen by the difference in the amount of ash in summer and autumn leaves. Oak leaves in antumn contain nearly twice as much, and beech leaves contain more than twice as much ash as they did in summer. The richness of the fallen leaves in ash explains why the surface soil of the forest is so rich. The roots have been engaged in bringing up the soluble matters from below, ana these, by the decay of the leaves, have been accumulating upon the surface. When a gardener wishes to make a rich compost he uses largely of woods-earth, which consists of decayed leaves. Evidently fallen leaves are too valuable to be neglected, and should be collected by all who desire a rich, valuable and easily-obtained mulch and fertilizer for their soil. —American Agriculturist.