Wood ashes long exposed to rain lose most of their valuable contents, and leached ashes are only of small value. If they are fresh ashes or ashes which have been kept dry, they are chiefly valuable for potash, which is good in its way, but not all that a plant needs. If, however, your soil is shy of potash, the use of ashes will notably improve growth if not applied in excess in the caustic form in which it occurs in the ashes. They require no treatment. Spread, say, a quarter of an inch thickness all over the ground and dig in deeply. It may also help you by destruction of wire worms and other ground pests. Coal Ashes in the Garden. What is the effect of coal ashes on the red clay soil of Redlands or wood and coal ashes combined? Coal ashes are exceedingly desirable upon clay land because their mechanical mixture with the fine particles of the clay renders the soil more friable, permeable and better adapted to the growth of most plants. Coal ashes, however, possess no fertilizing value - their action is merely mechanical. The wood ashes which may be combined with them are desirable as a source of potash which most plants require. Liming a Chicken Yard. I have a small family orchard of half an acre, fenced in as a chicken yard, the soil of which has become very foul. When would be the best time to apply lime and how much? Put on 500 pounds of lime and plow under as soon as you can - that is, spread the lime just before the plowing, with a shower or two on the lime before plowing, if the weather runs that way. Poultry Manure. Give directions for using chicken manure. For use of young trees, is there any difference in treatment of deciduous and citrus trees? For use in the vegetable garden and the flower garden, what should be mixed with it and in what proportions? So many people say poultry manure is so strong, I am afraid to use it. It is a fact that poultry manure, free from earth, contains even as high as four times as much plant food as ordinary stable manure. It is, therefore, to be used with proportional care, so that the plants shall not receive too much, and particularly so that there may not be too much collected in one place. Probably the best way to guard against this is to thoroughly mix the manure with three or four times its bulk of ordinary garden soil and then use this mixture at about the same rate you would stable manure. If you do not desire to go to all this trouble, make an even scattering of the manure and work it into the soil. There is no reason to fear the material; simply guard against the unwise use of it. It is good for all the plants which you mention; in fact, for any plant grown, provided it is sparingly and evenly distributed.