A MISTAKEN opinion seems to be entertained by many, that any manure will do for trees and shrubs, and the amateur planter, thinking that wood mould, chip manure, and decaying sods from some cesspool will prove desirable, at once uses it freely in filling up the holes dug for the new trees. Perhaps no greater injury has ever been done in horticulture than the recommendation, by inexperienced writers, of chip manure as a dressing. Its danger arises mainly from its ready disposition to spread fungi, which inevitably arises in soils naturally a little moist and tenacious. And when once formed, it spreads with astonishing rapidity, totally preventing growth and finally killing the tree or shrub. An instance is on record of an English gardener, who planted two very fine pyramidal white Bigarreau cherries side by side. One grew very well, and answered his expectations; the other, after putting forth its leaves, made no growth; the foliage gradually acquired a sickly hue, despite the most careful of attentions, and at last it was taken up. It was discovered that the roots were covered with a lacing of a delicate white fungus, which had spread to them from a piece of rotten wood buried in the soil.

The roots were at once cleansed, and the old earth removed, and fresh loam replaced; but the tree had suffered too much, could not recover, and died a victim to the deadly effects of fungus. Chip manure is the hiding-place, besides of fungus, of worms and insects by the score; and its only possible value can be either through its reduction in the fermentation of a lively compost heap, or in being burned to save the ashes. It is a wise policy never to apply it as a fertilizer to the roots of any tree, shrub or vine.