>al, with constant tillage, are among the best known agents, 

 using barnyard manure the best part of the manure is 

 ten lost. A large part of the mineral content is washed out 

 the pile is exposed and the liquid portions leak out or es- 

 ipe in gases. Many different substances have been tried 

 >r the purpose of preventing this loss. One of the very best 

 laterials which can be used for this purpose is charcoal, 

 'his is true because of its exceptional power of absorption, 

 possessing the capacity of absorbing many times its own 

 ^eight in moisture and also because its physical effect upon 

 le soil and the sub-soil have been conclusively demonstrated. 

 Jharcoal is already extensively used as a deordorizer or dis- 

 fectant, and the fact should not be lost sight of that the 

 imonia gas, which is quite lost in the manure heap would 

 be absorbed by the charcoal and made available for plant use. 

 For many years the attempt to raise coniferous seedlings 

 in this nursery was a comparative failure because of the hard 

 clay soil, which greatly increased the loss from unfavorable 

 loisture and surface conditions. Among the agents tried for 

 le relief of this condition were green manures, fertilizers, 

 id charcoal, and of these only the latter has proven suc- 

 >ssful, as may be observed by the size and weight of seed- 

 igs developed from clay bed, fertilizer beds or charcoal beds, 

 le seedlings are much larger and heavier and of better color 

 the charcoal beds than on any other. Some fertilizer beds 

 >w good seedling development, but the beds were not as 

 msely covered with little trees as on the charcoal beds, not- 

 ithstanding that the charcoal beds were in the worst sec- 

 ion of the nursery, while the fertilizer beds which show the 

 )est weights were in sections cultivated for a longer period. 

 The charcoal seedlings averaged a weight of 250 grams for a 

 bundle of 100 trees, as against 127 grams for a check bed in 

 the same grade of soil. These trees were two years old. At 

 one year the differences are not so striking, but are strongly 

 marked. One hundred seedlings from a clay bed weighed 22 

 grams, "while the same number from a charcoal bed weighed 

 40 grams. These beds contained a relatively large quantity 

 of charcoal, such as could only be used in hot beds, gardens, 

 or other intensive work. But the same tendency is shown 



