196 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



Question. You prefer barnyard manure ? 



Mr. Allen. I do. 



Question. You get the best and finest leaf ? 



Mr. Allen. I do. 



Dr. Riggs. Why do you use barnyard manure exclu- 

 sively ? 



Mr. Allen. I do not use it exclusively. I use phosphates 

 some and a small quantity of Peruvian guauo. But 1 use 

 stable manure generally. I think I can get the best quality 

 of tobacco from that ; I know I can. 



Dr. Riggs. You want the leaf-mould or liumiis, and all 

 the vegetable matter of barnyard manure ? 



Mr. Allen. Yes, sir. 1 think tliat is the best preparation 

 we can find. We cannot get enough of it. So we have to 

 take something else. 



Mr. Yeomans. I was in Hatfield last fall, and liad occa- 

 sion to travel round a little among tobacco growers, and 

 came in contact with one or two who had used the Newton 

 marl as a fertilizer. One gentleman in particular, who had 

 applied it with other fertilizers, told me that he had found it 

 superior to any other fertilizer that he had used, and the qual- 

 ity of the tobacco was very superior. He said that if it was 

 as cheap this season as it was last, he should put it on at the 

 rate of two tons to the acre, and thought he should get ex- 

 cellent tobacco. 



I want to say a word as to the effect of tobacco upon the soil. 

 It has been asserted over and over again, that tobacco is a 

 great exhauster, leaves the soil in a very poor condition, and 

 will ruin any farm after it has been raised there a while. I 

 do not think so. We have raised tobacco in the Connecticut 

 Valley for sixty or seventy-five years, and our tobacco lands 

 are the richest we have. The best lands in the Valley to-day 

 are tobacco lands. Our custom is to raise tobacco on a 

 field two, three, or four years, then seed it down, and let it lie 

 in^ grass three or four years, and then put it into tobacco 

 again ; and these lands are growing rich. They are more 

 fertile now than when we first began to cultivate them in that 

 way. You see that in order to raise a good crop of tobacco, 



