268 



STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Table I. — Single vs. intermittent fertilizings, to frost. 



Table II. — Single vs. intermittent fertilizings, total crop. 



Plots. 15 plant« each. 



1. Single application of 3 lbs. nitrate of soda, June 20 



2. Four applications of 12 oz. nitrate of soda, June 20, June 28, July 



11, July 27 --. 



%. Four applications of 12 oz. of nirate of soda, June 20, July 21, Aug 



8, Aug. 26 



4. Check 



Average 



wt. of 



individual 



fruits. Obb. 



S3 



S.t 



5.2 

 i.% 



The second column of figures gives the total yields. It will be noticed 

 that the best yields, in each table, are given by the single fertilizing, and 

 that between the intermittent fertilizings the one which was completed 

 first (No. 2) gives the better result. This was true in both the yield 

 before frost and in the total yield, but it must be observed that in the total 

 yield the differences between the intermittent fertilizings and the single 

 fertilizings are not so great as in the yield to frost; that is, the intermittent 

 fertilizings were catching up, and would probably have surpassed the other 

 had the season been a month longer. Thus, in the first table, the first 

 intermittent plot (No. 2) is 13 per cent, less in yield than the single treat- 

 ment plot, but in the second table it is only 6.7 per cent, less; the second 

 intermittent plot (No. 3) is 34 per cent, less in the first instance and only 

 19 per cent, less in the second instance. It will be noticed, also, that the 

 number of fruits — in the first column of figures — follows the same course. 

 All this is proof that productiveness in the tomato is largely a question of 

 early bearing and that the best tomato fertilizers are those which give up 

 their food materials quickly. 



It must not be understood, however, that this early productiveness 

 necessarily implies earlier individual fruits; that is, the idea refers rather 

 to the production of many fruits — heavy pickings — early in the season rather 

 than to the actual few first ripe fruits. A detailed account of the pickings 

 from the plots illustrates this: 



