"^ TIMING VEGETABLES 137 



the seeds of tomatoes in the garden; to get the 

 ripe fruit in reasonable time it is necessary to 

 start the plants in a greenhouse and transplant 

 them when frost no longer threatens. The 

 ripening can be further accelerated by training 

 the plants to stakes and removing all side 

 branches; but this is not enough. In our 

 Northern states it is folly to plant any but the 

 earliest of the varieties. Earliana is favored by 

 market gardeners, but for the home garden 

 Chalk's Jewel or Baer are better because the 

 tomatoes do not all ripen at once. Earlier still 

 than these — often by several weeks — is the Bur- 

 bank tomato, which I have found the most 

 satisfactory in my garden for earliness and 

 quality. I can indorse the verdict of a Long 

 Island enthusiast: "Most perfect in shape and 

 color, the least vine, the most fruit, the longest 

 in bearing, the least acid, the sweetest tomato." 

 It would be impossible in Maine to do what 

 has been done with the Burbank tomato in 

 California — grow, from seeds ripened in June, a 

 second crop the same summer! But I have 

 planted Burbank seeds in the garden in June 

 and picked ripe tomatoes from the vines, 

 although the frostless season in this state is only 

 three months. That, I fancy, is a "record." 



THREE WEEKS' POTATOES 



With the famous Burbank potato I have 

 been less successful. The plants grow here with 



