TOMATO 287 
mulching, but fresh horse manure is generally employed. 
Care should be exercised in order to avoid burning the 
leaves with ammonia that may escape from hot manure. 
Such injury may be prevented by spreading the manure 
in thin layers until it is cool, or it may be soaked with 
water immediately after it is applied to the beds. A 
depth of 3 or 4 inches is necessary for the best results. 
Mulching is most commonly employed with the spring 
crop. If surface watering is practiced, most of the ma- 
nure will be sufficiently decayed by midsummer to spade 
or plow into the soil preparatory to the fall crop of 
lettuce or cauliflower. 
An experiment made at the Ohio station demonstrated 
the superiority of a strawy manure mulch over straw 
alone. There were two plots, each 120 square feet in 
area, and 28 plants were set in each plot. The results 
were as follows: 
PLror 1—Manure MutcH 
Variety Number of Weight 
fruits lbs. 
Magnus: .25.-)-2ss-22 220235 326 102 
Stone : 299 104 
Beauty 2 256 72 
881 278 
PiLot 2—Straw MuLcH 
Magnus ~___--------------- 234 63 
Stone —. es 234 75 
Beauty ween teus feces eue se 234 76 
702 214 
The plants in the manure-mulched beds averaged 
about 934 pounds each, while those in the straw-mulched 
beds averaged about 734 pounds to the plant. 
There is considerable difference of opinion among 
growers concerning the proper time to apply a mulch. 
If straw is used, there can be no objection to putting it 
on immediately after the plants are set, and some grow- 
ers who use manure, mulch at this time. It is claimed by 
