TWENTY FIFTH ANNUAL MEETING. 229 



acre of excellent fruit. His neighbor set his seedlings in a hot- 

 bed and induced a rapid growth, so that before it would do to 

 set them in the field they were nearly twice as tall as Mr. Starr's, 

 and had to be held back for want of room for further growth. When 

 set they were checked, so that Mr. Starr's plants caught up with them 

 in size. They then took a start, and, the ground being very rich, they 

 outgrew Mr. Starr's and were larger at the time of ripening than his. 

 The result was only a fair crop of less than 300 bushels to the acre. I am 

 sure that any one familiar with the plants, soil, and other conditions of 

 these crops, would believe that the difference in yield was chiefly due. 

 to the greater steadiness of growth of Mr. Starr's crop. 



Our experiment stations have made a good many experiments as to 

 the best fertilizer and method of treatment for tomatoes, and while these 

 are very valuable, the results are often contradictory, and I think they 

 are so because of the fact that difference in the steadiness of the growth 

 of two lots had more influence on the crop than the difference in fertili- 

 zing or treatment. 



Now, as to a practical point in growing tomato plants. Mr. J. H. Mc- 

 Cotter of Pontiac has developed a method which gives the most satiH- 

 factory results. The soil in his cold-frames is packed hard and smooth, 

 and on the sides of the frame he makes marks three inches apart. He 

 finds a bit of tough, thin sod in some old pasture, and with the aid of u 

 mai'l:ed board and a sharp spade he cuts bits of turf about 2f inches 

 square. These are taken to the bed and, by the aid of a strip having pegs 

 three in«!hes apart, and the marks on the side of the frame, they are ar- 

 ranged in rows across the bed so as to be three inches apart from center 

 to center. They are then covered with about an inch of rich soil and the 

 bed is ready for the plants. In setting the plants, a strip three inches 

 wide, having pegs three inches apart, is placed in line with the marks on 

 the side of the box, and pressed into the soil, thus making a hole over the 

 center of each bit of turf, in which to set the plants. All this, as I have 

 told it, seems a fussy and a slow job; but in practice it is easily and 

 quickly done, and Mr. McCotter finds that the plants root into the turf 

 so that they transplant fully as well, often much better than from plant 

 boxes, and the whole operation, including cutting and placing the turf 

 and setting the plants, takes but very little if any more time than the 

 filling of plant boxes and removing of them at the time of setting, with 

 a net gain in the cost of boxes. 



DISCUSSION, 



Mr. Allis : In regard to the tomato question, we have a tomato-canning 

 establishment here in our town, and last year our people saved selected 

 seeds, with the desire of planting them; but the manager of the canning 

 works obliged our people to use the seeds that they furnished, and after 

 these had been sown and some little time had elapsed, some of these 

 other seeds were sown, and they went clear ahead of the others. But 

 now it is understood that the late seeds are used for canning purposes to 

 a certain extent. These others were selected, as Prof. Bailey says, for 

 the quality of the tomato and for the time in which they ripened. They 

 were not those late in the season, but those which did the best, and the 

 offspring did much better than the others. Now, I would like to ask 



