Treatment of Sick Soils 



49 



Green and Green* have carried out some interesting 

 experiments. They used beds which had been 

 treated as follows: New soil, straw mulch, manure 

 mulch, and a summer soil, sun-dried soil, in the 

 greenhouse. The results of these experiments with 

 tomatoes are shown in Table 5. 



Table 5 



Plot 



1908 



1909 



1910 



1911 



1912 



1913 



Average 



New soil 



5-2 



4-5 



3.5 







3-3 



4.1 



Straw mulch 



4-9 



3-2 



31 







2.5 



3-4 



Manure mulch 



51 



4.2 



30 







2.6 



3-7 



Dry . 



2.6 



31 



2.1 







.9 



2.1 



It is seen from Table 5 that as far as tomatoes 

 are concerned the new soil gave the best results. 

 The manure mulch is second in productiveness. 

 The effect of the dry mulch shows a rapid decline, 

 and the dried soil showed the poorest yield. It must 

 be added that in this soil the greatest amount of 

 disease was present. 



The result obtained with the soil treatment of 

 tomatoes was found to be different from that with 

 winter lettuce. This is more clearly brought out in 

 Table 6 (see next page). 



This table shows that the drying of the soil does 

 not affect the lettuce crop to the same extent as 

 it does tomatoes. Unlike most crops in the green- 

 house, lettuce thrives best in old soil. On the other 

 hand, cucumbers are as sensitive as the tomato to 



•Green, W. J., and Green, S. N., Ohio Agr. Expt, Sta., Bui. 

 53-68, 1915. 



