I have experimented a great deal to find the best fertilizer for the pawpaw. It will adapt itself to the very worst treatment without complaint but no tree will respond more readily to good treatment. I find stall manure or any decayed vegetable matter is acceptable, but potash (wood ashes) I find is one of the best fertilizers that can be applied. It not only stimulates wood growth but the fruit is greatly improved in quality. I find that potash greatly improves all kinds of fruit. I have sweetened sour grapes to such an extent that in comparison with the same variety, which had not been treated with an application of potash, it was claimed to be a different variety. I by accident discovered that plaster from an old building is by far the greatest fertilizer that I have tried for the pawpaw. I told Prof. Rayland T. Brown, of my discovery and he said he had discovered the same thing. All who remember him know what an enthusiast he was on the pawpaw. He said he liked all kinds of fruit from a sour Morillo cherry up to a pawpaw. He had the trees growing in his door-yard. He said that in China old plaster was considered so valuable as a fertilizer that they could afford to remove it and replace it. I will allow others to give the philosophy of the problem. All I know is that I got the old plaster from an old church at Cartersburg when they were remodeling it and was first class.

The plan to adopt in the cultivation of the paw- paw would be the planting of seed from the best va- rieties that are found. Trees will be grown from seed