No. 7. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 617 



days were fair it would not be necessary to start the plants until 

 about December 1st. We aim to have the plants ready to set in 

 the permanent beds about March 1st. This brings them into fruit- 

 ing about Decoration day. In some localities it would no doubt 

 be better to gets the plants in their permanent places earlier but with 

 us February is usually a pretty cold month and we prefer to keep 

 the plants in the plant house until the worst of the cold weather is 

 over. Then too we plan to have the second crop of lettuce coming 

 off the last of February and first of March and the tomatoes are 

 set with the third crop of lettuce. 



The plants are transplanted three times the same as for early 

 field-grown tomatoes. When a crop of lettuce is grown with the 

 tomatoes it is best to have the lettuce started before the tomatoes 

 are set in the beds, but this cannot always be done. The lettuce 

 should not be allowed to crowd the tomatoes too much as it will 

 make the plants spindling. Lettuce grown in this way will be light 

 in weight but the returns usually justify the effort necessary to 

 produce a third crop. 



The tomato plants are set about eighteen by twenty-one inches 

 apart. A home-made wire, twisted into corkscrew form at one end 

 and looped at the other is screwed into the ground by the side of 

 each plant. Wires are stretched the full length of the greenhouse 

 directly over each row of plants and above the truss rods which 

 support the roof. A string is fastened to the loop below and tied to 

 the wire above. In training the plant up they are twisted about 

 the string or tied to it with raffia or both. All suckers or side 

 branches are broken off when small. Only one stem is allowed to 

 grow to each plant. Our beds are six feet in width thus four rows 

 of tomatoes are set in each bed. This makes it very convenient 

 or work with the plants when pruning, pollinating or picking. It 

 is not advisable to set closer than this distance and some growers 

 prefer two by two or even two by three feet. 



POLLINATING 



As soon as the blossoms commence to open hand pollinating be- 

 gins. We use two sticks about 18 inches in length for this pur- 

 pose. One sticlv has a spoon shaped end whittled into it and the 

 other a spatula at the end. To pollinate the ladle is held under the 

 flower and the blossom tapped gently with the spatula. This jars 

 the pollen into the ladle and when a sufficient quantity of pollen is 

 secured to show in the ladle the flowers are pushed into it until 

 the end of the pistils touches the pollen. The releasing of the pollen 

 and the placing of it on the pistil is done in one operation after a 

 start has been made. We aim to go over the plants every other day 

 and all of the blossoms which are fully open are treated at each 

 operation. 



There is a good deal of difference in varieties as to the need of 

 hand pollination. Some varieties will set much fruit without any 

 hand pollinating while others will set almost none. When the 

 blooming period comes at a time that will permit of wide open 

 ventilators much of the time hand pollinating is not so important 

 as when the houses must be kept closed or nearly so a good deal. 

 We think it safer to do a little more work than necessary than to 

 FUJI the risk of heavy loss through a small saving in labor. Care 



