No. 6. DEPARTMENT OP AGRICULTURE. 621 



A little practical experience is necessarry in order to grow good 

 plants, it is hard to say, tvithout heing on the job, just when to venti- 

 late, or how much water to apply and watering and ventilating are 

 the two most important points in plant raising. As a rule the be- 

 ginner is liable to coddle his plants too much and as a result his 

 plants are liable to damp off on account of not having sufficient venti- 

 lation or too much water. The soil used should be of a loose porous 

 nature to allow perfect drainage. If the soil is inclined to be too 

 heavy it will be greatly improved by the addition of fine ashes (an- 

 thracite). The soil should be rather dry and not packed very tightly 

 in the flats. The temperature in the house should not go above 50 

 degiees at night. 



The greatest loss in plant raising is due to the ''damping off" 

 fungus. This disease usually attacks the young jjlants in the seed- 

 ling box, causing the stem of the plant to turn black and rot off. It 

 is due to too much heat, lack of ventilation, to heavy watering, cloudy 

 weather, or the use of old soil. This trouble can be almost entirely 

 eliminated by careful attention to watering and ventilation. Loosen- 

 ing the soil slightly between the rows of seedling is also very bene- 

 ficial. We have had jiractically no trouble in this regard since using 

 sterilized soil. The soil can be sterilized either with steam or with a 

 solution of formaline, 2 pounds to 50 gallons water. It will take 

 about 2 gallons of the solution to sterilize a cubic foot of soil. 



The plants in the cold frames should be ventilated every day, 

 the amount of ventilation depending upon the age of the plants and 

 the condition of the weather. During warm days the sash are re- 

 moved and the plants gradually hardened so as to stand a tempera- 

 ture of at least 20 degrees. A well-developed plant will be short 

 and stalky, having 5 or 6 leaves of a reddish hue and having an 

 abundance of fibrous roots. The soil for green-house purposes 

 should be prepared at least a year in advance. Where sods are ob- 

 tainable it is a good plan to pile up a layer of sods, say a foot deep, 

 then add a foot of rotten manure, then another layer of sods and so 

 proceed. Where sod is not obtainable select a good piece of land, 

 manure it heavily, jilow and harrow and roll again, continue this 

 process until sufficient manure has been worked into the soil and 

 the ground is in fine mechanical condition. Then screen the dirt and 

 haul to green-house or store in protected place until needed. 



The flats used are made by sawing in sections toirrato cases or 

 other second-hand canned goods boxes. We try to buy all tomato 

 cases as this gives us a uniform sized flat and one which fits in nicely 

 in the green-house, cold frame and wagon. Years ago Ave used the 

 old "xVrmstrong" method for sawing the boxes, but now we hitch 

 a gasoline engine to a circular saw which makes short work of the 

 box business. Large-sized shoe cases are purchased, taken apart 

 and used for bottoming the inner sections. For cabbage plants the 

 flats are made 2^ inches deep, for tomato plants and especially for 

 re-transplanted plants we prefer to have the flats an inch deeper. 



We use double cold frames in preference to the single frame. They 

 are made deep enough to allow \ foot fresh horse manure in the 

 bottom, this furnishes some bottom heat which is very desirable 

 while the plants are yoirng and the weather severe. 



Instead of using mats to protect plants on cold nights we use 

 steam-heated cold frames. These frames are built so as to pitch 



