110 TOBACCO LEAF. 



avoid the use of chlorides, which, as the experience in all 

 countries agrees, are likely as a rule to injure the burn- 

 ing quality of the leaf. Chlorides exist as chloride of 

 sodium, or common salt and chloride of potash, or 

 muriate of potash. Low grade sulphates of potash, 

 such as kainit, carnallite, krugit, etc., also contain a 

 large admixture of common salt, and therefore should 

 not be used. 



It has been found that the texture of the leaf, and 

 to some extent its burning quality, is frequently injured 

 by certain coarse forms of nitrogenous matter, and some 

 substances, as castor pomace, are regarded with disfavor 

 by manufacturers, some of whom refuse to purchase a 

 crop grown on pomace. This is a matter of far less 

 consequence than the presence of chlorine, for the del- 

 eterious effects of coarse nitrogen compounds can easily 

 be eliminated. And castor pomace itself can be, and 

 is, used with perfect safety, when it is intelligently 

 handled. In fact, this pomace is a very popular to- 

 bacco fertilizer in some sections, and dealers who pro- 

 fess to refuse to buy crops grown upon it, nevertheless 

 do purchase many a lot so grown, being kept in igno- 

 rance of the fact by the grower, and no complaint is 

 made when tlie grower is skillful, and has a reputation 

 for producing good tobacco. The Poquonock experi- 

 ments certainly indicate castor pomace when it is prop- 

 erly used. 



The same objection can be raised against coarse an- 

 imal matter, such as green slaughterhouse waste, coarse 

 meat scraps, etc. The whole point is, that when such 

 matter is applied directly to the land, it should be done 

 early in the fall, that the process of violent fermentation 

 and putrefaction may pass long before the plants are set. 

 Such matter decomposes with an excessive fermentation, 

 amounting to a violent putrefaction and, owing to the 

 coarse, lumpy form, this excessive fermentation is long 



