THE NEW AGRICULTURE. 117 



size of a goose egg, and a few specimens were as fine as the very 

 finest we have ever seen. The yield from this one row was nearly 

 or quite three times as much as from any grown that season on 

 our own grounds or on those of our neighbors of equal area. In 

 nearly or quite every hill outside of the test row, was found from 

 one to three or four rotten potatoes, and these, as usual, were the 

 largest ones. 



"Why this very great difference ? nearly or quite every reader 

 will naturally enquire. Here is our answer: No uncomposted 

 manure was mixed with the soil, and consequently no seeds of 

 fungus were sown. On lands above the trench, manures were 

 spread between rows of raspberries, while still farther up our 

 manures had been corded for composting. The snows of winter 

 and rains of early spring had sent their waters in flow adown 

 the incline, and when our first trench was reached, these were 

 dropped into its depths and the trench filling and overflowing, 

 the Avaters passed through the sponge of our single row, feeding 

 the tubers with " broth, soup or porridge," and hence there was 

 perfection in growth and fruition. This accounts for the fact, at- 

 tested by Dr. C. E. Earley, in his chapter on fungi, that nowhere 

 on our grounds is that deadly enemy of vegetable and animal 

 life to be found. 



Perhaps the point has not yet been reached to propound the 

 question ere long to be everywhere asked: Will it pay to drink 

 water and grow fruits uncontaminated with stagnation and other 

 sources of infection and contagion V In other words will it pay to 

 grow fruits and vegetables to sell, which, when eaten by yourself and 

 family, are liable to engender disease and produce death, when by 

 the simplest of means, through adoption of methods discovered and 

 fully demonstrated, those of far greater perfection and with larger 

 profits, can be grown free from infection, and perfect in all ways. 



