186 BRISTOL SOCIETY. 



six inches apart. As the vine grew, it was, from time to time, 

 secured to the laths with strips of matting, completely filling up 

 the frame- work, and spreading each way to the height of eleven 

 feet. I picked a bushel of ripe tomatoes, and, on the 26th of 

 October, after the frost had arrested their growth by killing the 

 vine, I picked nearly rive pecks more of partially ripe and green 

 tomatoes, from this one plant. I measured the vine, when it 

 was removed — that is, all the branches over a foot long, (the 

 main branches being 11 feet,) and it contained in all 797 feet, 

 not including the parts cut off while growing. I watered the 

 vine, when young, with soap-suds, and, when it began to bear, 

 with a little saltpetre water, say about one lb. of saltpetre to 

 four gallons of water, three or four times in the season. I gath- 

 ered more good tomatoes from this vine than from all four of 

 the others which ran upon the ground. Upon another exper- 

 iment, I should not permit the vine to grow more than five feet, 

 trimming off the ends, as 1 am satisfied that they will bear more 

 abundantly, and ripen sooner, than with so much vine. 



I have used nine gallons of saltpetre in my garden during the 

 summer, around my plum and quince trees, gooseberry and cur- 

 rant bushes, and garden rhubarb, and have found it to be the 

 best manure or fertilizer that I have ever used, producing a lux- 

 uriant growth, and larger and handsomer fruit. The experi- 

 ment I tested upon my gooseberries proved that the fruit upon 

 the bushes watered with the saltpetre dilution, was double the 

 size of those where it was not applied. 



In the spring, I selected the four smallest from eight hills of 

 rhubarb, for an experiment. I applied the saltpetre water, two 

 quarts each time, in May and June. From one of the hills I 

 gathered a stock, the leaf of which measured 2 feet 3 inches 

 wide, and 2 feet and 4 inches long ; the stock was proportion- 

 ally large. In the spring of 1845, I set out a small quince-bush. 

 It grew well that and the following seasons, but bore no fruit. 

 In May last, I applied a pailful of saltpetre water around 

 the roots, and again, in June and July, repeated the quantity. 

 The foliage soon became a dark and rich color, and grew fast : 

 the body has almost doubled in size ; and I gathered from it 40 

 large and very fair quinces. Four years ago last spring, a 



