276 Agricultural Experiment Station, Ithaca, N. Y. 



It will be noticed that the lessened productiveness of lot 1 — 

 the earliest settinj? — as compared with the main setting in lot 3, 

 was due to the delay of fruiting caused by the injuries of the 

 frost, for the pickings, when they once began, averaged heavier 

 than in the latest setting. The great advantage maintained by 

 the second setting — lot 2 — was not due to absolute earliness, 

 but to early productiveness; and this supports the conclusions 

 which we have already drawn from our studies of fertilizers, that 

 productiveness in the tomato is chiefly a question of early prolific 

 bearing. These remarks may also throw some discredit upon 

 the common method of determining comparative earliness of vari- 

 eties by recording the date of the first ripe fruit; profitable 

 earliness is detennined by the ability of the variety to maintaini 

 heavy early pickings rather than by the date at which the few 

 first fruits ripen. 



This is the third year that we have made this test upon early 

 and late settings, and our results have been substantially alike 

 throughout — that tomato plants are not injured by the cold raw: 

 weather of late spring, and that a slight frost may not greatl.y! 

 retard them. This conviction has been an unwilling one on the 

 part of the writer, for he entertained the belief that the inclement 

 weather of early May in the northern States is very prejudicial 

 to the tomaito. " In our tomato bulletin for 1889 this statement 

 was made: "It is a common mistake to set tomato plants in the 

 field too early. Cold nights, even though several degrees above 

 frost, check the plants, sometimes seriously." This statement 

 now seems to be much too strong, and we are gradually adapt- 

 ing our general practice to our new belief. In 1889, our toma- 

 toes were set in field June tenth to twelfth; in 1890, they were 

 set June twelfth; in 1891, June nineteenth; in 1892, June first; 

 and next year we shall set our plants in May. 



5. Early and late seed-sowing. — In 1889 we made some tests 

 to determine if it pays to start tomato plants under glass with 

 artificial heat, rather than to wait until they can be started under 

 cold frafnes. Sowings were made March twenty-one and twenty- 

 two, April ten, twelve and fifteen, and May fifteen. "In every^ 

 instance the early sown plants gave earlier fruits than the others." 



