74 TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS 



first weeding; then you can go to work in a day or two with wheel-hoes, 

 and there is very little, if any, hand weeding required. In this way, you 

 have a perfect stand from three to four inches apart in the row. It is 

 very difficult to get a good even stand when the seed is sown in the open 

 ground. But I think the greatest gain in growing them in this way is, 

 that you have them all marketed by the time those started in the open 

 ground are ready. I have planted my beets in this way for the past two 

 seasons with excellent results. I use the Egyptian variety. For very 

 early, I think they are the best. 



Early cabbage rotted pretty badly, but there was plenty to supply 

 the demand. The standard varieties with us are Jersey Wakefield, Early 

 Wyman and Winningstadt. I have tried Henderson's Early Summer 

 this season, and it has given very good satisfaction. It is a little later 

 and a little larger than the Jersey Wakefield, and the disseminator, Peter 

 Henderson, claims that it rarely or never bursts open when it is ripe. Late 

 cabbage were pretty scarce, owing to the little black beetle eating the 

 plants in the seed bed. The standard variety here is the Flat Dutch. 



Our manner of growing early tomatoes is to plant the seeds in shal- 

 low boxes in the hot-house or beds about the middle of February; and 

 when they show the third leaf, transplant into other boxes, giving them 

 more room ; and when they crowd again, we transplant. We generally 

 transplant about three times. In the intervals of transplanting, we draw 

 a knife between the rows to root-prune them. Those we intend for mar- 

 ket we transplant into shallow boxes three inches apart each way. These 

 boxes we leave at the groceries and other places, and the plants are kept 

 growing until they are all sold. We also transplant them into quart fruit 

 boxes — (in making these boxes, we let the bottom down even with the 

 sides) — putting one plant in some and four in others. These we take to 

 market in the boxes. For our own planting, we use those with one in a 

 box, having them very stocky and well hardened, and generally in bloom 

 and fruit-set at the time of planting. When the ground is ready, we set 

 the boxes into a tub, with enough water to cover them, and let them 

 remain until soaked through, and then send them to the garden, where 

 the contents of the box is turned out and placed in the hole, and the dirt 

 drawn around it. In this way we can plant through the hottest part of 

 the day, and the plants will not wilt a particle ; and this is a great point, 

 and one that should be guarded against above all others ; if the plant 

 wilts, nine cases out of ten it will drop the fruit-set and also the blossoms, 

 and it will be ten days or more before the plant recovers. If staked, it 

 should be done at once, and kept tied up with wool twine every fifteen 

 inches of growth, and all the suckers and most of the laterals kept cut 

 off. Unless they are tied up properly, better let it alone, and let them 

 run on the ground. If you have plenty of room, so they can be planted 

 six feet apart each way, and some brush or clean straw thrown under 

 them, cutting off the points of the vines occasionally with a corn knife 

 is a very good way. 



I have tried two new varieties the past season — the Acme and One 

 Hundred Days. The Acme, introduced by A. W. Livingston, Reynolds- 



