— US- 

 extended, no doubt the ultimate productiveness of the various 

 plantings would have been the same. A part of the test is at 

 fault from the fact that the variet}^ in its different sowings was 

 sometimes obtained from different sources, and there is possibility 

 of variation in stock. Yet the varieties are such as are pretty- 

 clearly defined and therefore not liable to mixture, and there is 

 substantial uniformity in results. Four of the varieties, however — 

 two sowings of Acme, Cincinnati Purple, King of the Earlies, and 

 Tom Thumb — were sown from the same packet. 



It is a common notion, to which the writer has heretofore sub- 

 scribed, that soils containing little or no manure are preferable to 

 well enriched soils for tomato growing. It is supposed that rich 

 soils tend to make vine at the expense of fruit, causing lateness of 

 maturity and consequent lessening of yield ; and the supposition is 

 prevalent that rich soils tend to make fruits "rougher" or more 

 irregular in shape. A careful test upon these points has been 

 made during the present season. Three plats were set aside and 

 treated as follows : 



I. 60x30 ft., good rich garden soil, to which 5,460 lbs. of old 

 and fine stable manure was added when the land was plowed in 

 spring. The plat contained 78 plants of Ignotum. 



II. 55x30 ft., adjoining I, considerably poorer in character, 

 some of the surface soil having been removed, upon which 8 lbs. 

 of nitrate of soda was sown soon after the plants were set. 66 

 plants of Ignotum. 



III. 50x30 ft., poor soil, adjoining II, from which most of the 

 rich surface soil had been removed. It received no fertilizer of any 

 kind. 60 plants of Ignotum. 



The three plats were planted and tilled alike. From the first 

 there was great difference in appearance of the dififerent areas. 

 The plants on the heavily manured plat were uniformly most vig- 

 orous and largest. The nitrate of soda plantation gave stocky 

 plants of medium size with a ver}^ dark color of foliage. The un- 

 fertilized plat gave small plants with a light cast to the foliage. 

 Fig. r, plate II, illustrates admirably the difference in size and 

 vigor between plats I and III. 



The first ripe fruits were found on plat III, but there were only 

 two on the whole patch which ripened in advance of plat I, and 

 the difference amounted to but a day. At the first picking, plat I 

 produced b}^ far the most fruits, and they were in every way supe- 



