THE NEW AGRICULTURE. 213 



than the money and the labor of destroying them in the fertilizing 

 influence they will have on the soil. 



Three years ago, I prepared a bed for asparagus and put in chip 

 manure, a liberal supply, some of it pine chips, that remain there 

 still without going to decay as rapidly as I desired. Where that 

 chip manure is used, there is fungoid growth. A few tomato 

 vines planted along the border yield fruit that has rotted, the 

 trouble caused by chip manure. There is no other place on my 

 grounds where rot affects tomatoes, and in this spot the trouble is 

 clearly traceable to chip manure. 



"W. A. ARMSTRONG. The answer to my question is not entirely 

 satisfactory, because with the sixty loads of manure there is all the 

 leaf mould that Mr. Cole could gather. Now, if we had a safe 

 estimate of that, the whole matter would be clear. 



MR. COLE. I can only say that I have gathered all the leaves 

 from forest and other places that I could conveniently get, but the 

 whole has not been much. I cannot state the exact amount. 



G. W. HOFFMAN. The sixty loads of manure mean the compost 

 in which the leaves were incorporated ? 



MR. COLE. Yes ; and that is the limit. Sixty loads covers 

 everything. 



G. W. HOFFMAN. We have here a tobacco farmer, who knows 

 very well the amount required on good lands to secure a ,full 

 growth of tobacco Mr. Chamberlain, whose experience is ex- 

 tended. 



GEORGE CHAMBERLAIN. I use twenty loads of manure to the acre 

 the first year ; after that about ten loads each year, provided I can 

 get so much. 



G. W. HOFFMAN. And a load is a cord and a half or more ? 



GEORGE CHAMBERLAIN. Two cords. 



G. W. HOFFMAN. Then there are forty cords used on an acre, and 



