THE NEW AGRICULTURE. 211 



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Yelous in size and delicious in flavor. Last Tuesday I picked pea- 

 pods of a dwarf variety, the pods five inches in length and each 

 containing eight large peas the products of his improved land. 

 Now, when I find these evidences of improvement I must say there 

 is really something worth considering in the system by which the 

 gain is made. That the crops are improved may be determined 

 easily by comparison with similar products on other lands adjoin- 

 ing that which Mr. Cole has treated. Nothing of the kind can be 

 found. No strawberries of large size, or even of ordinary size, 

 were possible on the unimproved grounds near Mr. Cole last July; 

 no potatoes of large yield, no peas of large growth. Mr. Cole's 

 lands alone have these remarkable products. Then they are con- 

 vincing evidence of merit in his treatment, whatever that may be. 



" I do not know that all his claims will be sustained, that he 

 will realize all he expects. But I do know i^iat he has effected 

 wonderful improvement in his lands, and I believe that similar im- 

 provement, perhaps less in degree, may be made in the soils of 

 these uplands in all the hilly lands of Steuben, Allegany, Che- 

 mung, Tioga, Tompkins, and many other counties where conditions 

 are similar. It is something to be proud of, to take unproductive 

 apple trees and by treatment of the soil make them bear fruit of 

 fine character, and this is what Mr. Cole has done, the fruit being 

 far superior to that on other trees but a little way off; yet the 

 trees were formerly under the same conditions. So in tomato 

 plants. Will I seem to be extravagant in statement when I say 

 that a single vine on Mr. Cole's improved land has thirty or forty 

 pounds of tomatoes ?" 



MR, COLE. From one to one and a half bushels. 



SENATOR SELKREG. No doubt; the yield is simply marvelous. 

 It is difficult to comprehend the change effected in all the pro- 

 ducts of that improved land. The lessons there spread out to 



