104 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 



the ground at liberty, but trained to stakes, fences, or some other 

 support. We prefer to retain two of the bottom laterals, with the 

 main stems, and to rub off all other laterals, also cutting back some 

 of the leaves, especially when the plants are tied up to stakes. 

 Trained plants have many advantages to compensate us for the 

 care bestowed on them. The fruit is always clean, and readily 

 seen when wanted, ripens better, and has a superior flavor to those 

 borne on plants which are bespattered with soil after every rainfall. 

 Excellent early tomatoes are Chalk's Early Jewel and Lister's 

 Prolific. For a main crop, nothing is superior to the old reliable 

 Stone. Aristocrat and Dwarf Stone are fine dwarf types, excellent 

 for very small gardens. Golden Queen is the finest of the large 

 yellow varieties. The small fruited tomatoes have of late years 

 come greatly to the fore; for salads, decorative effects, and pre- 

 serving they are very fine; the finest of these is Yellow Plum; 

 others to be recommended are Red Cherry, Peach, Pear, and Red 

 Plum. They grow taller than the large-fruited tomatoes; we have 

 had Yellow Plum over twelve feet high, and one or two plants of 

 each of these varieties will give a lot of fruit. 



No garden is complete without sweet corn; no vegetable with- 

 stands severe drought and heat better if persistent culture is given 

 the crop. It succeeds well in either hills or drills, probably in the 

 latter the stalks do not blow over so much during wet windy 

 weather. A first sowing can be made in a warm piece of ground 

 from April 25 to May 1st; even if it is cut down by a late frost 

 the seed is easily sown again and the loss is but trifling. The soil 

 for sweet corn should be very rich for best results. Seeds can be 

 sown at intervals of eight or ten days until July 1st, in the case of 

 Stowell's Evergreen, and a few days later with Crosby. We have 

 sown early varieties as late as July 15th and they have yielded an 

 abundant supply of cobs when frost held off late. In the way of 

 early varieties. First Crop Sugar, Golden Bantam, Early Cory, 

 and Peep-o-day, are all good; in medium earlies we have Golden 

 Dawn, an excellent yellow variety of fine flavor, and the always 

 reliable Crosby; Potter's Excellent is another sort of splendid 

 flavor; of late varieties, Stowell's Evergreen produces the largest 

 cobs, and they are very tender and sweet, but Country Gentleman, 

 an irregular rowed variety, has a very delicate flavor. 



