New York Agricultural Experiment Station. 



261 



a supply of food not available to its neighbors and during the rest 

 of the winter it was allowed to stand as an object lesson on the 

 bad effects of over-feeding tomatoes in the forcing house. Of the 

 twenty-seven plants finally included in this x>art of the test, 

 eighteen were trained to single stem. These averaged l.SO 

 inches high when they were pricked off and 6.00 inches when 

 they were benched. Nine corresponding plants designed for 

 three-stem training averaged 2.05 inches high when they were 

 pricked off and 7.15 inches when they were benched. In this 

 case, although the more vigorous plants were assigned to three- 

 stem training, the single-stem plants eventually out-yielded them 

 as the following table shows: 



Table VII. — Plants in Pots. Time op Ripening First Fruits, Average 

 Weight per Fruit and Yield per Square Foot of Bench. 



TRAINING. 



Single-stem 

 Three-stem. 



a 



O 



2o 

 «=2 



23-20 

 16.04 



♦See Table I. Note 1. 



tThis is the average for eight plants as the first flower cluster on one plant was cut 

 ■off by an insect, thus delaying the setting of the first fruit. 



As explained in discussing Table V, page 258, the plants in this 

 test were so arranged on the benches that more uniform condi- 

 tions were secured than was possible with the plan which was fol- 

 lowed in the first test. The superiority of the single-stem train- 

 ing, both in size of fruit and in total yield is again emphasized by 

 this table. Although the three-stem plants ripened their first 

 fruit an average of five days earlier than the single-stem plants, 

 yet in the amount of fruit ripened during the six weeks after the 

 first fruit was picked the single-stem plants were ahead, as the 

 following table shows: 



