270 CROP GROWING AND CROP FEEDING 



very early but is also, in our experience, rough and a poor cropper. For the 

 main crop and for canning Livingston's Beauty, Matchless, Crimson Cush- 

 ion, Stone and Queen are all good. 



FORCING TOMATOES IN WINTER. 



There are few varieties well adapted for this purpose. The one known 

 as Lorillard has been more generally used than any other. If we can suc- 

 ceed in getting a smooth type of Maule's Earliest it will leave nothing to 

 be desired in a forcing tomato. Dwarf Champion, while not usually recom- 

 mended for forcing, has, with us, always beaten Lorillard, and we are in- 

 clined to consider it one of the best. Tomatoes for forcing are sown about 

 the last of August for the first crop. We sow the seed in the open ground and 

 transplant them there once, to get them stocky. They are potted in four- 

 inch pots late in September and transferred to a greenhouse where the night 

 temperature is not over 55 degrees, if possible, at this season. They are kept 

 close to the glass to keep them stocky. As soon as the balls are well covered 

 by the roots, but before the plants got "pot bound" or stunted, they are trans- 

 ferred to the fruiting pots. We always grow tomatoes in pots. Some use 

 large wooden boxes for them, and some plant out on the benches in soil over 

 the hot water pipes. If the crop is being grown commercially, and the house 

 is a narrow lean-to constructed for the purpose, the planting should be on the 

 benches, in a bed of soil and the vines trained on wires in the same way we 

 train grapes under glass. But in a span-roof greenhouse, where the glass is 

 used later in the season for other purposes, the pots are far more convenient 

 and for the one crop fully as good. We transfer the plants from the four- 

 inch pots to those of ten-inch -size. Arranging for drainage at the bottom 

 we place the plant near the bottom of the pot and fill around with soil merely 

 to the height of the ball turned from the four-inch pot. Then, as soon as 

 the white roots are seen running into the fresh soil, another inch of compost 

 is added, and so on till the pot is filled enough. This gives the plant a very 

 strong root system. When the pot is well filled with roots we give dilute 

 manure water, or nitrate of soda one ounce to a two gallon can of water, week- 

 ly. The plants are trained to a single stem and all side growths rigorously 

 pinched out. When placed in the fruiting pots the plants are put into a 

 house where it is possible to maintain 70 degrees at night, though 60 is about 

 the usual average. As soon as the blossoms set we go over the house daily 

 at noon and brush the pollen on the stigmas with a soft camel's hair brush. 

 This is more rapidly done and is far more effective than any effort to collect 

 pollen in a spoon, as some advise. The early crop should begin to ripen about 



