MR. STOKE: How deep is that effect on the soil?
DR. ANTHONY: We have used straw, hay, weeds, sawdust, chips, anything of the kind, putting on a 5 to 6-inch layer. As I say, it takes from one to three years to get through that period.
Now, Massachusetts has the longest continuous use—all of New England has—of mulch, and they are reaching a point now where some of the mulches are ten years old where the release of nitrogen is too much and they get poor color on McIntosh. I think with the Chinese chestnut this is one thing we have got to watch to get good maturity. Going farther and farther south, you have more trouble. As you go to the north, our trees color more easily, and there you wouldn't want to force them, as our New England people find. They are releasing too much nitrogen late in the season. So I would not want to use long, continued mulch in the chestnut, I'd watch my maturity, and the minute they get a little slow in maturing, I'd quit.
MR. BERST: How about corn cobs?
MR. JAY SMITH: How about anything in the street, leaves?
DR. ANTHONY: Anything like that, whether it's oak or maple. One goes down as quickly as the other.
MR. CORSAN: On the way down here I called in to see Rodale, and we found him in a mass of brewer's hops and ground up corn cobs. He had them in the chicken house, and you know how a chicken house smells. He had no smell in the chicken house. We looked all through his place, and we saw another big pile of furs, mink, and such trimming off of them, a big pile about that high (indicating), and that will go down. He had everything under the sun in the way of mulch, but corn cobs ground up fine was the chief one in sight.
Personally, I like to grow the mulch on the land right there. We can grow it—up to 10 ton of green mulch to the acre. I have done it many, many times. You have something there that goes down quickly. The very growing of that through the latter part of the summer also uses the nitrogen and hardens up your trees. Then we turn it down and within two to three weeks we have it reseeded, and so we are growing a constant supply in the soil-itself. You get the same effect as hauling in your mulch. It's cheaper, usually, and you get, I think, a little bit better control. Your mulches are not dry, they are turned under when—well, it's crimson clover in the red, right in the blossom. They go down very quickly. We leave as much as possible on the surface. I think it's a little cheaper and a little more satisfactory control. I put them on quite green. I find they rot much quicker.
MR. CHASE: I will now turn the gavel back to Dr. MacDaniels, who will take over.
DR. MacDANIELS: Thank you, very much, Mr. Chase.