August, 1910 



THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST 



191 



Celenr 



Complete Fertilizer: Potash, Phosphoric Acid, Nitrogen. See introductory article, page 183. 



Hot-House Vegetables 



A. H. Walker, Macdonald College, Que. 



and illustrated in the May, 1907, issue of 

 The Canadian Horticulturist. All the 

 rest can be eaten with impunity. 



Two excellent and delicious varieties 

 are the Shaggy Mane, commonly called 

 around Toronto the "French Morel." 

 gathered in the vicinity of the Don River 

 and eaten with a relish. Its first cousin 

 is called the Ink Mushroom. Bushels 

 of these two mushrooms annually rot in 

 lawns and fields instead of being gathered 

 and enjoyed by the people through ignor- 

 ance or fear of being poisoned. 



The puff ball, when gathered in the 

 early stages of growth, makes a plea- 

 sant and palatable dish and one which I 

 personally like. There are numerous 

 others, interesting to mycologists, which 

 1 will notice later, but our common 

 mushroom, with the pink gills, is so 

 generally well known and its culture is 

 so easy it is not necessary to go after 

 other varieties where this is plentiful. 

 The technical name is "Agaricus Cam- 

 pestris" or meadow mushroom, some- 

 times called the English mushroom, in 

 much the same way as the potato is called 

 the Irish potato. It is the variety the 

 brick spawn produces, although these 

 sometimes vary, as I have found two 

 varieties — one with a firm, dark fawn 

 colored pileus or cap and the other var- 

 iety a paler cap, but identical in flavor. 

 Agaricus .Arvensis, or horse mushroom, 

 is so termed from its stem and larger size 

 and also from the fact that it is to be 

 found white gilled as well as pink. 

 Agaricus Gambosus or St. George's 

 mushroom, derives its name from ap- 

 pearing in most seasons on or about 

 April 23. It is a compact, short-stemmed 

 mushroom, with irregular or cracked 

 pileus, and with a yellowish, kid-like 

 skin and white gills. Anyone finding 

 the.se mushrooms in early spring can 

 gather and cat tlicm with serenity. 



Experiments have been conducted in 

 the college greenhouses in maturing 

 vegetables during the winter. 



Tomatoes, lettuce and radishes were 

 started at different dates during the fall 

 and early winter for the purpose of 

 obtaining some definite information as 

 to the time required for the maturation 

 of these crops during the winter months. 

 The greenhouses in which the experi- 

 ments were conducted run east and west 

 and are made up of 4-21 feet wide ridge 

 and furrow houses, each separated by 

 a glass partition. The tomato tests 

 were conducted in one of the centre 

 houses. The south bench in this house, 

 especially during the winter, does not 

 receive full sunlight. It is shaded, to 

 some extent, by the gutter, partition wall 

 and north roof of the adjoining house. 

 The north centre benches receive practi- 

 cally full light. 



Duplicate tests were conducted with 

 tomatoes on the south and north benches, 

 results of which are here given. The 

 plants were spaced 18 inches apart and 

 the yield and net returns are calculated 



per square foot of bench area. It will 

 be noticed that the plantings made on the 

 south bench, Aug. i6th and Sept. i6th, 

 were a complete failure, while those on 

 the north bench planted at the same time 

 and given same conditions, except as to 

 light, gave fair returns. The variety 

 Livingston Globe was used. The crop 

 netted twenty cents a pound. 



As light is such a controlling factor 

 in the winter forcing of vegetables, 

 especially in securing a set of fruit on 

 tomatoes, plants were spaced 17, 18, and 

 ig inches apart on the north .bench. 

 The results would indicate that closer 

 than 17 inches is not advisable. It will 

 also be noted that plants from seed 

 started after the middle of August did 

 not give satisfactory returns. The July 

 planting a\-eraging twenty-eight cents, 

 August twenty and a half .cents, and the 

 September five and a half cents per 

 square foot of bench area. 



It will also be noted that the average 

 of early and late sowings from date of 

 sowing to end of harvest required 190 

 days, being in the bench 145 days, and 

 the fruiting period continuing for 86 

 days. The average of the August sow- 

 in'J^s required 225 days from date of sow- 

 ing to end of harvest, being in the bench 

 175 days and in fruit for 91 days. The 

 average of September sowing was 206 

 days, being in the bench 151 days and in 

 fruit for 55 days. 



From plot No. 2, seed sown July 22, 

 fruit harvested for two months. Dur- 

 ing the first month— November 19 to 

 December 19th — 35 lbs. of fruit were 

 harvested against 6iy^ lbs. for the follow- 

 ing month, December 19th to January 

 19th. 



On plot five, seed sown August i6th, 

 the first fruit was ripe December 28th and 

 continued to March 2gth, practically 

 three months, giving a fair uniform 

 supply during these months. 



On plot six, seed sown Sqptember 

 1 6th, the first fruit was ripe February 

 14th and lasted to April loth, about two 

 months, giving a very low average yield. 



TO.MATO EXPERIMENTS AT MAC nONAI.D COH.EOE. QUEBEC. 



Plants started at different dates, on different benches, and planted different diaiances apart. 



be 



.3 

 ■a 



•A paper read before the Montreal Gardencre' and Florisis' Club, Jtily 4, 1910. 



