40 



THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST 



ston's Perfection, Favorite, Matchless, 

 Success, Ruby, the New Queen, Royal 

 Red Wonder, and Marvel. 



The great essentials to be ooked for 

 in a variety are earliness, size, color, 

 solidity and smoothness, and regularity. 

 The Stone and Ignotum possess to a 

 marked degree all these qualities, ex- 

 cept earliness; they are too late, and 

 throughout Ontario are invariably in- 

 jured by the early frosts. The Earli- 

 anna is the best of the earlies, but it is 

 not a good canner, as it lacks is smooth- 

 ness, regularity, soUdity, and contains 

 too great a percentage of water. 



GOOD SEED ESSENTIAL 



In a measure the future of the to- 

 mato plant depends upon the kind of 

 seed. Poor seeds will produce poor 

 plants, and naturally a poor crop. 

 Good seed is essential to success. The 

 managements of canning factories and 

 associations have realized this, and in 

 most cases import or buy their seed 

 from reliable firms, retailing them to 

 the farmer at cost price. This insures 

 the vitality and pureness of seed, but 

 most of these seeds are grown in south- 

 em latitudes, the fruits of which are 

 said to require a longer season to 

 mature than those grown at more 

 northerly ones. 



Where shortness of season has such 

 a prevailing influence as in Ontario, 

 earliness becomes an essential rather 

 than a factor. It has been suggested 

 that this difficulty may be overcome 

 by the growers growing their own seed. 

 Although this is a good solution of 

 the problem, yet few growers have 

 been able so far to make a success of 

 it. In Prince Edward County, where 

 perhaps the finest tomatoes are grown, 

 this practice is prevalent. The chief 

 failures lie in the mixing of varieties 

 and their choice of fruit for seed. 



The farmer who raises his own seed 

 must keep his varieties distinctly apart 

 in order to prevent interpollenation 

 or cross fertilization, and this naturally 

 increases the cost of production. Again, 

 and perhaps the most important, is 

 his choice of seed. Too often he 

 selects promiscuously the choice in- 

 dividual fruits and expects his seed to 

 produce the same. He must remem- 

 ber that prepotency does not lie 

 in the ndividual fruit, but rather in 

 the vine, and that seeds from those 

 that produce the greatest number of 

 uniform and good fruit are more likely 

 to inherit the potent qualities of the 

 parent than seeds saved from plants 

 that here and there produce one or 

 two excellent fruits. If the grower 

 bears these factors in mind, there is 

 no reason why he should not produce 

 and save his own seed to great benefit. 



GROWING PLANTS 



Every farmer can, and should, grow 

 his own plants. Excellent results may 



be obtained at a low cost when care 

 and perseverance are practised. The 

 seeds may be germinated in a flat, 

 18 by 12 inches and three inches deep. 

 The soil should be a light loam. When 

 the seedlings are from two to three 

 inches high, they may be put into an- 

 other flat, and finally, after they are 

 from four to five inches they may be 

 again transplanted into another flat, 

 this time three or four inches apart. 

 A preferable way is to plant two or 

 three in a strawberry box. In this way 

 they are easily handled and the roots 

 are less liable to be broken. 



These operations have to be started 

 in the latter part of February, and 

 artificial heat is necessary. A small 

 number of plants may be grown in the 

 house, but the most convenient method 

 is to use a hotbed. The expense in- 

 curred is very slight, and if good man- 

 ure is used the heat will be found to 

 be ample. Strong, bulky plants are 

 required. Factors, such as crowding, 

 too much heat, and lack of ventilation 

 should be avoided, or spindly plants 

 may result. 



HARDENING THE PLANTS 



It is a universal practice to harden 

 the plants prior to setting them rer- 

 manently in the field. This is done in 

 order to moderate the great change 

 from artificial heat to the cold nights 

 and mornings of the spring. All that 

 is necessary for this process is a cold 

 frame in which the plants should be 

 placed for at least a fortnight before 

 planting. 



SETTING THE PLANTS OUT 



The land should be thoroughly stirred 

 and a good seed bed prepared to re- 

 ceive the plants, which may be planted 

 three by four feet or four by four feet. 

 An ordinary marker, such as for corn, 

 may be used, the plants being inserted 

 at the intersections. Choose a cool 

 day and cloudy if possible. Plant in 

 the afternoon, as this lessens the in- 

 juries of drying out of plants and en- 

 sures a better catch. In planting, 

 great care should be taken not to in- 

 jure the roots or break the plants, and 

 the earth should be firmly pressed 

 around base of each. 



Cultivation should be started imme- 

 diately and kept up so as to conserve 

 moisture and to keep down the weeds. 

 It should be stopped when the plants 

 have covered the ground, and render 

 cultivation impossible without injury 

 to the vines. 



MARKETING THE FRUIT 



Good strong bushel boxes with the 

 grower's name or initials printed on the 

 side should be used, the fruit being 

 picked and placed in these and taken 

 straight to the factory. Although the 

 grower of tomatoes for the factory is 

 not catering to a fancy markft, yet he 

 should not for one moment lose sight 



of honesty. Too often blighted and 

 worthless fruit is packed away out of 

 sight in order to deceive the factory. 

 This method may be beneficial for a 

 short time, but in the long run it is 

 found out and the grower gets in the 

 bad graces of the manager, who will 

 inspect his fruit thoroughly, and will 

 await a chance for retalliation. Hon- 

 esty is the best policy. If the farmer 

 were to practise this policy and have 

 nothing to do with petty deceptions, 

 he would not only benefit himself but 

 all others with whom he comes in con- 

 tact. He would aid in placing the 

 tomato-growing industry on a more 

 satisfactorv basis. 



Starting Harly Celery 



The seed for early celery should be 

 sown in the hotbed in February. See 

 that the sun does not strike the seed 

 either before or after sowing as it re- 

 tards growth. Seedlings that have been 

 set back seldom develop properly. 



A hotbed for celery should have at 

 least 2}/^ feet of manure with four to 

 six inches of good garden soil on top. 

 A surface hotbed is better than one in 

 which the manure is placed below 

 ground. If a hole is dug, do not make 

 it more than six inches deep. Water 

 gathers in and destroys the heating 

 power of the manure. 



A surface hotbed should be made so 

 that the manure extends one foot each 

 way beyond the frame. The latter 

 being placed in the centre, is filled with 

 six inches of soil, and is made high 

 enough to admit of a six-inch space 

 between the soil and the glass. As 

 growth of plants develops the frame 

 may be raised accordingly. Plants in 

 a hotbed so prepared and well covered 

 at night will stand a heavy frost without 

 injury. 



Varieties of Vegetables 



(Coticluded from Page 38) 



extra early, Earliana ; second early, 

 Chalk's Jewel; late, Ignetum, Dwarf 

 Stone, Royal Red ; New Success gave 

 rnuch satisfaction last year, also the i 

 Enormous; for pinks. Plentiful sur- | 

 passes everything in quality, color and ' 

 vield. In turnips. Snowball, Orange j 

 Jelly, Swede, Hall's Westbury, Sut- | 

 ton's Champion and Elephant are most 

 generallv grown." 



Do not start the hotbed too soon. 



Select and buy your seeds early. 



Do not buy seeds because they happen i 

 to be cheap; get the best. \ 



Careful attention to ventilation of 

 hotbeds is one of the important means 

 of making plants stocky. 



