Tomato Kotes for 1892. 



289 



TABLE XIX.— Hilling Tomatoes. 

 A. Yield to frost. 



plot. 



Hilled. ... 

 Not hilled 

 Hilled. ... 

 Not hilled 



Average 



number fruits 



per plant. 



JB. 



Hilled. ... 

 Not hilled 

 Hilled. ... 

 Not hilled 



24.6 

 24.6 

 20.5 

 25.0 



Total for season. 



56.4 



86.2 



72.6 



61.0 



Average 



weight fruit 



per plant. 



Pounds. 



11.0 

 9.8 

 8.5 



10.1 



17.9 



27.1 

 22.2 



18.7 



The results are conflicting, although, on the whole the normal 

 or check plants gave rather the better results. In earliness there 

 was no appreciable difference. This hilling experiment was first 

 made last year, it having been urged upon us by a gardener who 

 thinks that hilling gives greatly increased yields. But in both 

 years we have found no advantage in it. 



14. Trimming. — It is sometimes said that trimming or head- 

 ing-in tomato plants in the field is an advantage, giving earlier 

 and heavier crops. We have tried it three years. This year, four 

 plots of a dozen plants each of Ignotum were selected for treat- 

 ment, three of the plots being trimmed, and the remaining one 

 having only common treatment. The trimming consisted in head- 

 ing-in the main shoots to the first fruit which had attained the 

 size of a marble. From four to eight inches of the shoot was there- 

 fore removed. The trimming was done at different times, as 



recorded below: 



TABLE XX.— Trimmed Plants. 



37 



