276 VEGETABLE FORCING 



size, preferably short and stocky, and rooted in sharp 

 sand. If a little bottom heat is provided, the cuttings 

 will root in five or six days, when they can be potted and 

 grown to proper size for planting in the beds. The few 

 experiments which have been made seem to indicate that 

 plants propagated from June cuttings are not as prolific 

 as those grown from seed, so that no advantage in gen- 

 eral cropping is gained by using cuttings. There are in- 

 stances, however, when it is desirable to perpetuate a 

 stock of choice plants, and this can be done only by means 

 of cuttings. If an unusually fine plant is found, seed 

 should be saved from it for testing, and additional trials 

 may be made of the plants rooted from cuttings. 



Plants large enough for the beds or benches may be 

 grown in much less time from cuttings than from seed, 

 but this is probably of no value from a commercial view- 

 point, because seedlings require so little space until they 

 are large enough for potting. It is simply a question' of 

 sowing early enough to grow plants of proper size for 

 planting in the beds at the desired time. 



Starting plants. The proper time of sowing depends 

 upon a number of factors: (1) Earliness of the variety. 

 Some varieties require nearly a month longer than others 

 to mature fruit. Bonny Best sown July 1 in central 

 Pennsylvania produced a few ripe specimens October 11. 

 Stone probably would have produced no ripe tomatoes 

 before November 1. (2) Amount of sunshine. There is 

 more bright, sunny weather in some sections than in 

 others, and there is much more sunshine late in the winter 

 and spring than during the fall and early winter. Prob- 

 ably four or five weeks more time would be required to 

 mature Bonny Best sown November 15 than for the same 

 variety started February 1. (3) Temperature of the 

 house. High temperatures, especially when the plants 

 are young, necessarily shorten the time from seed sowing 

 until the ripening period. (4) Market demands. This 

 question should have most careful consideration. For 



