taE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST. 



187 



the leaders. The water sheds of our 

 rivers are still in the hands of the Pro- 

 vincial Governments and they can at 

 their pleasure reserve as much of them 

 as they will foi' tlie storage of moisture, 

 timber, and health and strength. Those 

 reserves if managed according to the 

 best foreign methods should furnish no 

 inconsiderable revenue. and we certainly 

 have enough and to spme of broad rich 

 acres waiting anxiously for the plough 

 to permit these barren lands to retain 

 tlieir forest glories. — Toronto News. 



EXPERIMENTS WITH TOMATOES. 



N. Y. AORICUI.TORAL ExPEKIMKNi' STATION'. 



Our tests with tomatoes include 64 

 named samples. One hundred seeds of 

 each kind wei-e planted in boxes in the 

 greenhouse April 9-11, and the time 

 required for vegetation was six to nine 

 <lays. The number of seeds which vege- 

 tated v^aried from 14 to 100 per cent, 

 as between the different varieties, the 

 average being 74 per cent. Four plants 

 of each kind were transferred to the 

 garden on May 24. The first bloom 

 was noted 61 days from planting upon 

 the Little Gem variety, and the last 

 variety to bloom was the Improved 

 Large Yellow, in 104 days from plant- 

 ing. The first tomato to ripen was of 

 the Green-Gage variety, and was noted 

 July 31, or 112 days fi-om planting. 

 The first large-fruited variety tliat ripe- 

 ned ten fruits was the Alpha, 135 days 

 from jilauting, or upon August 22. The 

 New Currant, a very small variety had 

 ripened 10 fruits on August 18, and 

 the Turk's Cap, anotlier small variety, 

 August 22. The President Garfield, 

 a so-called new variety, failed to ripen 

 any fruit. We find that the order 

 of ripening of the varieties does not agree 

 with that noted last season. Thus, last 

 year the Acme was two days later than 

 the Mayflower ; the past season it was 

 7 days earlier. Last year the Acme 

 was 6 days earlier than the Paragon ; 



the past season it was 30 days earlier. 

 Last year the Acme and Trophy ripen- 

 ed the same day ; the past season the 

 Acme was 7 days earlier than one 

 sample of the Trophy, and 11 days 

 earlier than another. 



It is interesting to note that tomatoes 

 which came up in the garden as weeds 

 from the last fall's seeding, seemed to 

 ripen their fruit at aboitt the same time 

 with the earlier class as grown by us 

 from the planting of April 9th-llth. 



We note that as a rule smooth toma- 

 toes have few cells, and conversely, that 

 many-celled tomatoes ai'e rough. The 

 number of cells found varies in the 

 fruits on the same plant, as does also 

 the smoothness of the fruit. These 

 facts suggest that in order to secure 

 smooth fruit we should select for seed 

 those which are few-celled. As evid- 

 ence in favor of this suggestion, we note 

 that fruits of the Acme tomato ai-e 

 invariably smooth, and the number of 

 cells in this variety rarely exceeds four. 

 The C'herry, the Currant and Apple 

 toiaatoes are also invariably smooth, and 

 rarely have more than two cells. 



The roots of a tomato plant exam- 

 ined occupied the upper eight inches of 

 the soil, and wei-e traced to a distance 

 of 24 inches on one side, and 80 inches 

 on the other. Fr-om this it appears 

 that the plant drew its nourishment 

 from a circle abont 4i feet in diameter, 

 or from an area of about 1 6 square feet. 

 A single root was traced downward to 

 a depth of 2| leet. The tap root was 

 clothed with a multitude of fibrous 

 roots to the de{>th of 8 inches, where it 

 separated into miissy brandies. This 

 rooting habit is what we would a priori 

 expect from a plant originating in the 

 tropics. It seems at present to be a 

 safe generalization that all plants grown 

 in our gardens, of tropical origin, are 

 superfical rooters, and that consequently 

 they not only require a hot season for 

 tlieir best development, but that the 



