SECRETARY'S PORTFOLIO. 463 



to eight hundred pounds of salt, or two hundred pounds of nitrate of soda, 

 as a top-dressing, is plenty. Wood ashes are also good. If you can rent a 

 manure spreader it will pay you to do so, as that will break it up fine, and dis- 

 tribute it evenly. 



Soil Manure and Profits. — Peter Henderson says : Whenever choice can be 

 made the land used-for such purpose should be as level as possible, and be of a 

 nature what is known as a sandy loam; that is, a dark colored, rather sandy 

 soil, overlaying a sub-soil of sand or gravel. All soils that have adhesive clay 

 for their sub- soils are not so well suited for fruits or vegetables, besides requir- 

 ing at least double the amount of labor for cultivation. Above all things neces- 

 sary to success in growing either vegetables or fruits is manure. It may be laid 

 down as a settled fact that unless manure can be obtained in sufficient quantity 

 the work is not likely to be half as remunerative as where plenty of it can be 

 had. The quantity of manure used per acre by market gardeners around our 

 large cities is not less than 75 tons per acre each year, and if barn-yard manure 

 is not accessible, concentrated manure, such as bond dust or superphosphates, 

 should be harrowed in the land after plowing at the rate of not less than two 

 tons per acre, if no other manure is used. Such large quantities of manure 

 per acre will no doubt be appalling to the average farmer, as it is no unusual 

 thing for a farm of 50 acres to get no more than we market gardeners put on 

 a single acre; but everyone who has had experience in growing vegetables or 

 fruits knows that the only true way to make the business profitable is to use 

 the manure to the extent here advised. It is safe to say that the average profits 

 to the market gardener in the vicinity of our large cities, where he sometimes 

 pays as high as $100 per acre annually for rent, is at least 1300 per acre. The 

 usual amount of ground cultivated by market gardeners is ten acres, and they 

 think it is a poor year when their profits from that amount of land do not aver- 

 age $3,000, and that too when nearly all the products are sold to. wholesale 

 middlemen, in large quantities, and which before reaching the consumer, cost 

 him at least double the original price paid. The farmer in most cases growing 

 vegetables or fruits has a great advantage in selling direct to the consumer, and 

 the small amount of land necessary for growing these crops will cost him com- 

 paratively little, so that with proper attention I think there is every inducement 

 for many farmers to add this profitable branch to their farm operations. 



Tomato Culture. — Thos. D. Baird, of Kentucky, who has made tomato 

 culture a special study, says with regard to getting tomatoes early: 



Most growers agree that planting on poor, warm soil promotes earliness, but 

 my experience favors the idea that the richer the soil, if it be warm, the 

 earlier the fruit. My theory is, rich soil rushes the growth and causes an 

 immense foliage, but if properly pruned, the forced vigor of the plant will be 

 thrown to the fruit, bringing it to earlier maturity. To satisfy myself, a 

 medium soil was selected, five rows marked off four feet apart, a large shovel- 

 ful of composted manure put three feet apart in the rows and thoroughly mixed 

 with the soil, and the plants set. Cultivation was in the best manner to give 

 a fair test. Two weeks after the plants were set two rows were heavily top- 

 dressed with hen manure, and this thoroughly mixed with the soil. The fruit 

 from the two rows top dressed was much larger and better 3haped than that of 

 the three rows not top-dressed, and gave ripe specimens four days earlier. 



Cobden, Illinois, is a great tomato shipping point, and John McCaffrey says, 



