CORNELL UNIVERSITY EXPERIMENT STATION BULLETINS. 279 



off young tomato plants to make them stocky, in place of a transplanting. 

 Two dozen Ignotum plants, for which seeds were sown January 19. were 

 distributed into two lots. One lot, which we may call No. 1, was trans- 

 planted on February 1, March 3, April 14, and May 17; the second lot was 

 treated the same way except that in place of the last transplanting, 

 May 17, the plants were sheared. At this time the plants were some 15 

 inches high, and about three inches of the top were cut off. 



Table XVIII. — Shearing young plants. 



There was considerable loss in earliness in the sheared lot, but a gain in 

 weight of crop before frost. This gain was not great, and too much 

 dependence should not be placed upon it. 



18. Hilling. — Two plots of 28 good Ignotum plants each, were set aside 

 for a test of the value of hilling tomatoes, half of each plot being hilled 

 July 2, the remaining halves receiving common level cultivation. The soil 

 was drawn up around the base of the plant to a height of six inches, as 

 potatoes are hilled. 



Table XIX. — Hilling tomatoes. 



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

 plants gave rather the better results. In earliness there was no apprecia- 

 ble 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 heading-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 treatment, three of the plots being trimmed, 

 and the remaining one having only common treatment. The trimming 

 consisted in heading-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 

 therefore removed. The trimming was done at different times, as recorded 

 below : • 



