86 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1896. 



This of course brings tliem into market at the time when people who ' 

 can afford it are away cm their summer vacation, and tliey do not meet 

 a ready sale in the market, and when the people return in September 

 the i)ickles are gone, and scores of families are deprived of what might 

 have been had in abundance in August. There used to be no trouble 

 with the vines bearing till frost killed them, but that is changed now, 

 and until there is something invented to cnre the disease the best thing 

 to do is to (M'okl it b}' securing the crop in August, the time when the 

 natural conditions are the best for tlie production of this excellent 

 vegetable. Sweet corn is perhaps as universally used and highly 

 prized as any of the long list of vegetables, and in favorable locations 

 it will pay to plant a part of the earliest crop the last of April or first 

 of May, delaying the main planting till May 10th. The First of All, 

 Corey, Marblehead and Minnesota are the best early varieties. For 

 the second early the Crosby is the best, and for the family garden I 

 Avould make successive plantings of this for later use ; the ears are 

 twelve-rowed, of good size, and very sweet, while the stover is quite 

 dwarf, making it more desirable for the limited area of the garden than 

 the large-growing late varieties. The tomato, in spite of the newspa- 

 per paragraphs that occasionally go the rounds to the effect that they 

 cause cancers, has steadily grown in popular favor. This scare is on 

 par with the recent great scare in regard to tuberculosis in cattle, and 

 while the people will continue to keep their ears close to the ground to 

 catch the teacliings of science, until" science or practical experience, 

 one or both, can show some conclusive proof of disease from these 

 sources we will continue to use both tomatoes and milk. The Atlantic 

 Prize and Early Ruby are the earliest, but I would not recommend 

 them for the garden, as they are of inferior quality ; they will do for 

 early market, where earliness counts for money. The Acme or Dwarf 

 Champion are but little later, and the quality is of the best. The 

 First Choice, sent out by S. D. Woodruff & Sons of Orange, Conn., 

 is very much like the Acme, but I think is an improvement on that old 

 favorite. I have grown it exclusively for the last two or three years 

 with very gratifying results. A few hot-bed sash will be found very 

 useful to grow the tomato plants, as well as for lettuce, peppers, celery, 

 &c. If you buy your tomato plants don't try to save a few cents ; buy 

 strong, stocky plants, that are well budded, or even in l)lossom, if you 

 can get them. A great many fail to get enough tomatoes for home 

 use simply by buying poor weak plants that are worth hardly as much 

 as seed planted in the open ground. Don't waste any time or money 

 in making trellises for tomatoes ; let them spread on the grouud, they 



