CHEMICAL FARMING 227 



control, as one as small as four and a half gallons re- 

 quired daily attention. Some of my flowers grew four 

 times as high, with many more and larger blossoms, 

 than in soil. In some plants, the growth was so rapid 

 and tall that every one had to be carefully supported, 

 though ordinarily a single wire ten inches above 

 each basket, made as a part of it, did that duty, those 

 inside being held by those outside. In the large tanks, 

 a wire or strong cord four feet high held potatoes in 

 position. 



Prof. Gericke's tomatoes were a wonderful show 

 of real beauty, symmetrical in size, brilliant in color, 

 firm and fine. He had three cement tanks, two feet 

 wide by ten feet long, six inches deep, with a nar- 

 row passageway between tanks. The plants, when 

 six to eight inches high were transplanted into the 

 tanks on the igth of December, being grown with 

 the idea of a winter marketing. They were spaced a 

 foot apart each way, giving twenty plants to each 

 tank; thus he had sixty plants in an area ten feet 

 square. To force their growth he had about sixty 

 feet of electric heating wire in each tank with a 

 thermostat control, keeping the water at 72; the 

 greenhouse in California was kept as cool as possible, 

 screen doors always open. 



By the first of March, the plants had made a 

 growth of twelve feet; by the fifteenth, much of the 



