TROCEEDINGS OF THE FARMERS' CLUB. 261 



movement, and yet sufBcient rigidity to do good work are secured. 

 Like most inventions, it is difficult clearly to describe. The re- 

 sult of this arrangement is, that the plow requires no handles, and 

 when forcibly lifted from the ground and thrown to one side in 

 any direction, it returns immediately into the ground and con- 

 tinues to do good work. Trustworthy parties who have examined 

 it, state that the laborer has nothing to do but to drive, even in 

 turning round, which it does at a right angle or a circle, that he 

 can run as many plows as he can drive teams, and that the draft is 

 eas3'. It works as well on rough ground as any other plow; and 

 on the prairies it must be valuable. 



Tomatoes — How to Raise and Can. — Pkeserving Fruit and 



Vegetables. 



Mr. S. Edwards Todd. — Some of the old members of the North 

 American Phalanx, at Leedsville, New Jersey, are largely enjja^ed 

 in market gardening, The chief among the is these firm of J. & 

 C. S. Bucklin. They turn their attention especially to tomatoes, 

 and as they make them a specialty, and have an experience of 

 twenty years, it will be useful to impart their methods. 



They raise their own tomatoes. This year they had over twenty 

 acres. The variety is the large Early Red; they have improved 

 it by culture; it is tAVo weeks earlier than any other. In the lat- 

 ter part of February hot beds are made of fresh manure, a pit 

 being dug fifteen inches deep, and from six to eight inches wider 

 than the boxes on which the sash are to be placed. The manure 

 is hauled and thrown into the pit, while a man levels it with a fork 

 and presses it down with the back. He must not step on it. 

 When the pit is filled, the box or frame is placed on it, and pressed 

 firmly with the foot. The manure is covered with rich, fine soil about 

 six inches deep, and the frame is banked up front and rear. 



Generally, the seed is sown immediately, and the glass put in 

 place. The sashes hold fifty lights, six by eight, and are three 

 feet ten incJies wide, and five feet one-half inch long. The frames 

 are large enough for three of these sash. The soil is kept mode- 

 rately moist, though little water will be required. In about a 

 week the seed will come up, when constant attention is required,, 

 and every day a little air. They have six hundred sash and two 

 hundred frames, which are sufficient for eight acres. 



When the plants are five or six inches high, they are thinned 

 out in the rows, Avhich are six inches apart, and hilled up two 

 inches, so that new roots may start IVom the sides and become 



