206 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



earliest having been started in window boxes and all having had 

 their due period in the hotbed or cold-frame. This assortment 

 included two extra early varieties, supplied by leading eastern 

 houses, each claiming the largest smooth early tomato known. 

 They were Chalk's Early Jewel, sent out by W. Atlee-Burpee, of 

 Philadelphia, and Spark's Earliana from Johnson & Stokes, of 

 the same city. The eastern growers differ as to the relative 

 merits of these two varieties. Our own experience is very strong- 

 ly in favor of the ''Jewel." It seems to us to be a wonderful ac- 

 quisition, exquisite in flavor, very desirable in size, of good 

 keeping and shipping qualities and ripening very early. Many of our 

 customers remarked upon the flavor of this fruit and had a great 

 deal to say about it. This is one case in which our opinion based 

 upon one season might be modified after further experiment. We 

 found the finest of all large, late fruits, both in solidity of meat and 

 in flavor, to be the "Ponderosa," and these two varieties, for early 

 and late, we place at the head of the twenty-one varieties tried. 



We experimented last season also with three varieties of extra 

 early corn, Burpee's Golden Bantam, Northrup, King & Co.'s 

 Peep O' Day, and the Black Mexican, origin unknown. All three 

 varieties were planted at the same time. The Peep O' Day gave 

 the first ears, but produced a great many imperfect ones and put 

 out too many branches for our satisfaction. The Golden Bantam 

 came a few days later and was in every way very desirable in- 

 deed. All three were extremely sweet, and it might not be wise 

 to give too strong an opinion as to our preference for either. But 

 thus far, for a considerable crop of early market corn, we are in 

 favor of the "Golden Bantam." 



We have experimented considerably with wax beans, and for 

 the third time the past season tested Burpee's Brittle Wax va- 

 riety. The mature bean is of good size, and pure white with a 

 black eye. The pods are very round, extremely fleshy and crisp, 

 and the plants very productive. We picked four bushels of pods 

 at the first picking from a row about ninety yards in length. The 

 most important thing we learned about these beans may not be 

 new to our readers. We had several plantings of them, and some 

 of the lots were left to ripen without picking any while green. 

 These were soon past the blossoming period and, though they ma- 

 tured slowly in the cold weather, were not long in passing the 

 tender stage. But the earliest grown continued to throw out more 

 blossoms after repeated pickings, and when the frost came there 

 were still tender pods on them ready for use. This experience 

 was entirely new to us. 



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