1906 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



957 



that had got info one corner of my farm. 

 The man who took my hay did not want that 

 part, so we hauled two pretty good loads up 

 into my peach- orchard, and that clover hay 

 seems to make the most satisfactory mulch- 

 ing I have ever got hold of. Now, that 

 whole experimental farm is covered with 

 similar object-lessons. Let me give you one 

 more. 



TOMATOES UNDER GLASS. 



A year ago I told you they were having 

 trouble in the greenhouses at Wooster with 

 the white fly. Well, this year they have 

 completely routed the exasperating insect. 

 It was done by the use of hydrocyanic-acid 

 gas. Our readers, especially greenhouse 

 men, are familiar with this gas, so I need 

 not go into details. Well, the experiment 

 station had discovered that this treatment, 

 given when the tomatoes are small, so it can 

 penetrate all around through the dense foli- 

 age, is a complete remedy; and I saw the 

 largest crop of tomatoes grown under glass, 

 I was almost tempted to say, that had ever 

 been produced anywhere By judicious prun- 

 ing they had succeeded in getting a crop that 

 was just wonderful— great clusters of toma- 

 toes were almost piled one above another. 

 In one greenhouse the plants were set 2 ft. 

 apart each way. Here the tomatoes were 

 fine and extra large. Some of them would 

 be almost too large to bring the best prices 

 in the market. In the house adjoining they 

 had experimented with plants only a foot 

 apart each way. I thought this was alto- 

 gether too close; but they were tied to stakes 

 three or four feet long, and pruned (as I 

 have explained in a former paper) so as to 

 encourage the best fruiting. In this house 

 there were the greatest number of tomatoes 

 (and largest yield of fruit per square foot) , 

 but they were smaller in size, owing to the 

 crowding. They averaged, say, the size of 

 a hen's egg or a little larger, and the shape 

 was very much better than the larger ones 

 in the other house. While I was there, June 

 18, they were selling the crop at 20 cts. per 

 lb. They said that, heretofore, 2 lbs. per 

 square foot had been considered a fair yield; 

 but it seemed to me there were many places 

 in that bed where there were jour times 2 

 lbs. per square foot. Now, some of you 

 mathematicians can figure that out for your- 

 selves. Put it 4 lbs. per square foot. If 

 the same thing could be done outdoors (and 

 I do not see why it could not) just figure up 

 the number of tons you would get per acre. 

 Why, the idea is more fascinating to me than 

 any of your gold-mine or oil-well specula- 

 tions. Of course, it will take hard, careful 

 work; but we have boys and girls— quite a 

 lot of them— who love and enjoy this kind 

 of hard work more than any thing else in 

 the world. May God be praised for the 

 possibilities that our experiment stations are 

 showing us along the lines of ' ' high-pressure 

 gardening." 



PRUNING TOMATOES TO MAKE THEM SET 

 FRUIT. 



Francis Ball, of Jenkintown, Pa. , recently 

 showed me a process he had discovered for 

 making rank-growing tomatoes set fruit. 

 While in Florida last winter I had some very 

 thrifty tomato plants in my garden, but all 

 the blossoms dropped off without producing 

 any fruit. My friends on the island, how- 

 ever, told me the^ would bear fruit later on. 

 Well, Mr. Ball's invention is, that you can 

 make any stem of buds bear fruit if you 

 pinch out the little shoot close to the base 

 of the stem bearing the embryo blossoms. 

 You have got to commence about as soon as 

 the buds or blossoms can be seen. Mr. Ball 

 said he became satisfied the reason why 

 there were no tomatoes was because the 

 plant put all its energies into growing thrifty 

 shoots, letting the blossoms shrivel and 

 fall because they did not get enough nutri- 

 ment. Taking off this thrifty shoot forces 

 the growth into the buds and blossoms. It 

 was plain to be seen that, where this pinch- 

 ing or pruning had been done, the blossom 

 stem was much enlarged, and showed evi- 

 dence of fruit. At the present writing I 

 have not had an opportunity to test this 

 matter thoroughly; but I feel sure it will 

 help in getting tomatoes for early market 

 before they would set fruit otherwise. 



GREENHOUSES COVERED WITH CHEESE- 

 CLOTH INSTEAD OF GLASS. 



The plants at four cents each I have men- 

 tioned elsewhere (at Geo. W. Park's) are 

 grown in a row of greenhouses covered only 

 with cheese-cloth. This cloth costs so little 

 it is put on new every spring. It is then 

 white and clean, and lets in plenty of light, 

 but cuts off the severe rays of the sun, and 

 gives plenty of ventilation without the neces- 

 sity of manipulating ventilators. I suppose 

 these cheap houses are vacated when snow 

 and severe winter comes on; but Mr. P. 

 says the cheese-cloth will keep out quite a 

 good deal of frost. The slope of the rafters 

 is pretty steep, probably so as to shed rain 

 better, and snow if it should come before 

 the plants are all removed. I should judge 

 the benches are 2^ or 3 feet wide, and the 

 walk perhaps 2 feet. The plants are in two- 

 inch pots plunged to the rim as close as they 

 can stand. These four- cent plants are not 

 "rooted cuttings," but each one is grown 

 in a pot; and, when well rooted, the soil is 

 washed off and the plants are mailed post- 

 paid at this price. I feel sure these cheap 

 cloth-covered greenhouses will prove a great 

 success in growing lots of stuff in mild 

 weather. They can be built of any rough 

 strips of lumber nailed up in the cheapest 

 way, for they are more to protect from the 

 sun, and to preserve a moist atmosphere in- 

 side than to keep out the cold. You may 

 remember I described, about a year ago, a 

 variety of stuff grown under a cheese-cloth 

 cover at our Ohio Experiment Station that 

 g^reatly excelled a similar line of vegetables 

 g^own near by in the open air. 



