TOMATO CULTIVATION IN WEST MIDDLESEX, ONT 



ledge exists ; but its great 

 advantage over other pears is 

 that, Hke the apple, it may be 

 stored and barrelled and got 

 safely to market, so that pears 

 are now on our fruit stands 

 the greater part of the winter 

 season. A few years ago, 

 it was a rare sight to see a 

 pear in winter, except on the 

 table of the amateur grower, 

 who carefully stored them 

 away in cellars. It is getting 

 a wide reputation all over the 

 world. In Florida, they find 

 it, with its allied variety Le- 

 conte, the most profitable of 

 all pears. It has even safely 

 been introduced into South- 

 ern Africa, where the pear 

 growers are looking forward 

 to their first experience with 

 it the coming winter. 



Fig. 1300. — Skctiok Kikffer Pear. 

 ture. Although of poor quality in the 

 hands of those who have little expe- 

 rience in the ripening of pears, it is of 

 superior excellence when this know- 



Asp.\RAGUS. — Likes a night tempera- 

 ture of 60 degrees, partial shade, air, 

 and plenty of root room when estab- 

 lished. 



TOMATO CULTIVATION IN WEST MIDDLESEX. 



XPERIMENTS of three acres 

 in cultivation. The hot beds 

 were prepared about the mid- 

 dle of March with sashes six 

 feet by four feet, with four loads of 

 horse manure to each sash, leaving the 

 manure eighteen inches on each side of 

 the frame so as to keep out all frost. The 

 seeds were sown in drills about six inches 

 of rich loam, on April the ist and trans- 

 planted at once into cold frames three 

 inches apart each way, the manure on 

 each side of the hot bed being cut off 

 with a spade and dug in about six inches 



deep into the cold frame. The plants 

 were removed to the field by cutting 

 with a knife between the rows each way, 

 and then using a spade to lift them into 

 trays leaving a nice ball of earth to each 

 plant, this was done about the tenth of 

 June. Noticing the tomato blight on a 

 few plants, whilst in the cold frame, I 

 completely destroyed it by spraying with 

 the Bordeaux mixture. The field being 

 new ground and thoroughly worked up 

 and marked, holes were dug with a hoe 

 and a handful of chicken manure was 

 placed in each hole to give the plants a 



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