UTILIZING THE GREENHOUSE IN SUMMER 



BY FRANK WM. RANE 



During the summer months it is the prevailing- custom to" 

 clean out the forcing houses, allowing them to lie idle until it 

 is time to prepare for the fall campaign. The excessive heat 

 in summer dries out the soil under glass quickly and conse- 

 quently much shading, watering, ventilating, etc., are required. 

 Also, the crops ordinarily grown under glass are readily grown 

 outside at this season. Three years ago it occurred to the 

 writer that there should be some tropical or other plants of 

 economic importance that would adapt themselves to the utili- 

 zation of our empty houses. Egg plant, peppers, sweet pota- 

 toes and tomatoes were selected for the first season. The 

 house used for the experiment is even span, 25 x 100 feet, and 

 with the exception of one side bench, which is 3*4 x 100 feet, 

 the beds are all on the ground. All of the plants used were 

 started early so that they were of good size when transplanted 

 into their permanent positions. By so doing we gained earlier 

 maturity and hence greater profit. 



TOMATOES. 



From tomato plants, the seed of which was sown on March 

 10, and the plants set into the ground beds between lettuce 

 on April 9, we began picking fruit on July 10. The plants 

 were set 18 inches apart each way and trained to one stem. 

 The varieties used were Early Acme, Beauty, New Liberty 

 Belle, Ignotum, Fordhook First and Bond's Early Minnesota. 

 See Figure 55. These varieties from past experience had 

 proved very valuable for forcing. Records were kept of each 

 of the varieties. 



On examination of data at hand, it was found that August 



