24 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



account for it. For instance, I plowed a 6-acre field adjoining 

 the farm on which I was born, and so far as I know there had 

 never been a cabbage on it, but I got less cabbages than I 

 should ordinarily get on an acre. 



Mr. Barnard. What I am after is the remedy. Of course 

 lime will do it sometimes, but not always. 



Mr. FuLLERTON. We can prevent disease on beans by 

 spraying with Bordeaux mixture as soon as the bean opens. 

 The trouble is that the microbe is in the seed. Probably you 

 could do the same with the cabbage seed, if you could get 

 inside of it. When your first leaves come up, perhaps if you 

 tackle it then and there you can head it off by the use of Bor- 

 deaux. I will try it myself next year. 



Mr. BuRSLEY. We would like to hear from Mr. Hitchings. 



Mr. Hitchings. I came to listen. Our work is mostly 

 fruit and greenhouse work, and we can't get a rotation of 

 crops very well. We have one house we have been growing 

 lettuce in for the last twenty-three or twenty-four years, and 

 it grows a fine crop to-day. 



Mr. FuLLERTON. Is it the same soil, and do you sterilize ? 



Mr. Hitchings. It is the same soil, and we have not steril- 

 ized. One thing we are very particular about is not leaving 

 any of the old vegetable matter that comes off the plants there. 

 By keeping it cleaned up, we keep out the fungous diseases. 

 If you put it in a pile and let it rot, it is all right, and does 

 finely under the fruit trees. I think it is all right on our 

 high land, but letting the vegetable matter from crop after 

 crop lie on low ground does a great deal of injury, I believe. 

 I know we plowed in a lot of burned celery one year, and 

 where that celery was, the seed would hardly come up the next 

 year. You can't follow any set rule ; things vary from year 

 to year ; but in greenhouses we try to get things about in one 

 way, as the days are short before we get weather for out-door 

 crops, which throw out our greenhouse stuff. I have never 

 sterilized much, because throwing water on the soil in bad 

 weather knocks us out. 



Mr. H. S. Turner. I live in a locality called the South 

 Shore, where a great many fowl are kept, and' a good deal of 



