470 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Keeping Vegetables. — Henderson tells how market gardeners keep their 

 vegetables in winter about New York city: 



A piece of ground as dry as possible is chosen; if not naturally dry, provision 

 must be made to carry off the water, lower than the bottom of the pit. The 

 pit is dug from three to four feet deep, about six feet wide, and of the length 

 required; the roots are then packed in sections of say two feet wide across the 

 pit, and only to the hight of the ground level. Between the sections, a space 

 of six inches is left, which is filled up with soil level to the top; this leaves the 

 pit filled up two feet wide in roots, and six inches of soil, and so on until the 

 whole is finished. The advantage of this is, that it is merely a series of small pits,, 

 holding from three to five barrels of roots, which can be taken out for market 

 without exposing the next section, as it is closed off by the six inches of soil be- 

 tween. Also that we find that roots of all kinds keep safer when in small bulk 

 than when large quantities are thrown into one pit together. In covering, the 

 top is rounded so as to throw off the water, with a layer from eighteen inches 

 to two feet of soil. This way of preserving roots, with perhaps the exception 

 of potatoes, is much preferable to keeping them in a cellar or root house, as 

 they are not only fresher, retaining more of their natural flavor and color, but 

 far fewer of them are lost by decaying than when exposed to the air and vary- 

 ing temperature of the cellar. 



Cultuee of Tomatoes. — Thomas L. Brown of Grand Eapids, Michigan, 

 writes concerning tomato culture: The tomato crop is always a profitable one 

 if it receives the attention commensurate with its importance. Growers have 

 learned the lesson that the old plan of setting anything that is a tomato plant, 

 no matter how weak or spindling its growth, will not answer in growing this 

 vegetable profitably. A weak, spindling plant is soon toppled over by the ever 

 watchful cut-worm, and if the grower is so fortunate as not to have the com- 

 pany of this gourmand, a high wind will soon make havoc with a plantation of 

 such stock. I have known an acre to be completely swept away by an afternoon's 

 wind. In our country we have another insect enemy to meet in the potato-bug,and 

 a few crunches of his mandibles will use up a small plant ; when, with a stocky 

 plant, which has some wood fiber in its trunk, it takes quite a company of them to 

 make it succumb, and they are liable to attract the attention of the grower 

 from their numbers if the attempt is made. Then to expect a crop we must 

 start with the best of plants. But to grow them requires time, room and care. 

 I sow my seed in the green-house, or hot-bed, from the first to the middle of 

 March. The seed should be sown thinly — this is important. The plants need 

 room to " spread themselves " from the very outset. From the seed-bed they 

 should be transplanted as early as the weather will permit, into a cold frame, 

 and given from four to six inches space between the plants. For the crop I am 

 growing this year the plants were given eight inches space each way, and I was 

 better satisfied with the result than ever before. It is a great blunder to plant 

 upon the same ground two years in succession. In transplanting to the open, 

 growing with the soil about the plants (and this is managed by having them 

 in shallow boxes), there is no checking of growth, and this is absolutely essen- 

 tial to success. 



I am not particular about securing a rich piece of land. A piece of worn 

 land that has been idle for a year or two, then given addressing of long manure, 

 will grow good tomatoes. But I do want to give the vines plenty of room — 

 five feet each way is none too much. There is one advantage in using a piece 



