276 



THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST 



November, 1907 



to two pounds a head. "We set our 

 lettuce that far apart," said Mr. Wil- 

 liams, "because we get healthy plants 

 and they have room to mature. There 

 is also less danger of disease, and the 

 plants have room to breathe. Boston 

 head lettuce is set nine inches apart." 



ECONOMIZING GLASS 



At one time Mr. Williams had 1,000 

 thrce-foot-square glass frames that he 

 used early in the season in the raising 

 of mel9ns and cucumbers. They were 

 used for only four months in the year, 

 being stored from the first of July to 

 the first of March. Feeling that he 

 was losing money by having all this 

 glass stored idle so long each year, he 

 decided to try and make a double pro- 

 fit out of it. With that object, he put 

 up an extra greenhouse and set the 

 rafters to suit the size of the sash. A 

 crossbar was provided for every sash. 

 A button is attached to each sash which 

 projects from the end. This button 

 catches on the crossbar, and with a 

 piece of wire serves to hold the sash 

 in place. Last summer a crop of 

 tomatoes was grown in the house. 

 Two crops of lettuce are taken out of 

 the house from Februarj' to May, the 

 best season of the year. The second 

 crop is a Httle more than half matured 



when the glass is taken off. At that 

 time of the year, the sun is too strong 

 for lettuce without shading, and he 

 finds that the crop matures even bet- 

 ter with the glass off. 



TOMATO GROWING IN SUMMEK' 



Believing that there should be money 

 in raising tomatoes in the summer for 

 sale from the middle of October to 

 Christmas. Mr. Williams last year ex- 

 perimented with such a crop on a small 

 scale. His first tomatoes sold from 

 fifteen to twenty cents a pound. The 

 results were so satisfactory, he planted 

 a much larger crop of tomatoes last 

 summer for sale early this winter. The 

 objection to growing tomatoes in the 

 greenhouse in the spring is the fact 

 that high prices are realized for only 

 the first tomatoes. The remainder of 

 the crop competes with early cauli- 

 flower and other vegetables, and has 

 to be sold at low prices. During the 

 late fall and early winter months, 

 there are but few vegetables on the 

 market, and the price paid for to- 

 matoes sold at that time, instead of 

 dropping, keeps increasing as the sea- 

 son advances. The main winter crop 

 grown by Mr. Williams is lettuce, and 

 the out-door crops, asparagus, straw- 



berries, tomatoes, early cabbage, late 

 cauliflower, winter celery and melons. 



IMPORTANT WORK TO BE DO.VE 



As a member of the Ontario V'ege- 

 table Growers' Association, Mr. Wil- 

 liams is convinced that the associa- 

 tion has a great future and important 

 work to perform. "The Government," 

 said Mr. Williams, "does not realize 

 the extent of the vegetable industry. 

 Vegetables are grown everywhere, not 

 only around small villages, but on the 

 farm. Fruit, on the other hand is 

 not grown to anything like the same 

 extent. The main fruit sections of 

 Canada are limited. Fruit is a luxury, 

 vegetables are a necessity. It is the 

 duty of the Ontario Vegetable Growers' 

 Association to awaken the people from 

 the belief that vegetable growers do 

 not amount to anything, and to edu- 

 cate the country regarding the import- 

 ance and possibilities of the industry. 

 The trade of the average mechanic 

 can be learned by putting in two or 

 three years at the most. Such is not 

 the case in the growing of vegetables. 

 I have been in the business for forty 

 years and am learning yet, and this 

 is the case with every wideawake 

 vegetable grower." 



^^»«%:^c^ HT^iW^ '^^^i^L' "^Ili'^L^ *<~%^t> hH|*x/ v-C^f^tf 



OUR QUESTION AND ANSWER DEPARTMENT | 



Readers of The Horticulturist are Invited to Submit Questions on any PKase of Horticultural "Worh ^i, 



MarKeting Citrons 



Where can I find a market for citrons? I 

 have a large quantity; would preserve them if 

 necessary. — A.C.R., Goodwood, Ont. 



There is a demand for citrons, but it 

 is not large. Any reliable commission 

 man in Toronto or Montreal could sell 

 them. When they have to be shipped 

 any considerable distance, however, it 

 would scarcely pay, as they are so heavy. 

 The freight charges consume a large part 

 of the price. Recently citrons were 

 selling in Toronto at from forty cents to 

 eighty cents a dozen. There is no gen- 

 eral demand for home-preserved citrons. 

 It is probable, however, that such could 

 be sold to special customers or to hotels. 



W^Hen Plants Should Bloom 



When should plants of Datura cornucopia 

 flower? A specimen in my garden this year 

 grew well, but the leaves curled and flowers 

 did not appear. Would like to know also when 

 a prickly pear cactus should bloom. — Mrs. J. 

 D. M., Lardo, B.C. 



I am sorry that your first letter did 

 not come to hand. Datura cornucopia 

 is an annual and should bloom the first 

 year from seed, but the plants must be 



started early. The fact of the leaves 

 curling up, as referred to, would seem to 

 indicate the presence of insects or dis- 

 ease. The prickly pear cactus should 

 bloom in three years from cuttings or 

 joints, if conditions are favorable to its 

 growth. If grown from seed, it would 

 take probably four or five years. 



"Wants Redress 



We bought thirty pounds of Yellow Flat 

 Danvers onion seed indirectly from one of To- 

 ronto's leading seed houses this spring. We 

 also bought some Yellow Flat Danvers onion 

 seed from a firm in the United States in 190(). 

 After planting the seed purchased here, we 

 planted what seed we had left over from last 

 year of the American seed. The American 

 seed produced good saleable onions. The 

 seed purchased from the Toronto house, along' 

 side of the American seed to the very row where 

 it was planted, has grown what are called "thick 

 necks" or "scallions"; in fact, it is a question 

 in our mind if they are not Egyptian or Pyra- 

 mid onions. Xow, we planted seven acres of 

 this seed, and it means a loss to us of -52,000. 

 In addition, all these onions had to be gath- 

 ered off the land. We would like to know if 

 there is not some way of obtaining compensa- 

 tion for this loss, as in our opinion it is entirely 

 the fault of the seed, which variety must liave 

 been known by the man that grew it. — S.B., 

 CoUingwood, Ont. 



The foregoing letter was submitted 

 to a prominent law firm in Toronto, who 

 replied as follows: "Your subscriber's 

 letter is rather indefinite. What do 



they mean by 'bought indirectly' ? 



Only a general answer can be given to the 

 enquiry because of the lack of necessary 

 detail. The right to recover will de- 

 pend upon the representations made by 

 the vendor of the seed. If the vendor 

 sold to the purchaser seed represented 

 bv the vendor to be of a certain kind 

 and quality, intending the purchaser to ^ 

 rely upon such representations, and the 

 purchaser does rel}- upon the representa- 

 tions and purchases the seed, and, as a 

 matter of fact, it is not of the kind and 

 qualitv represented (and in the case 

 imder consideration the purchaser is 

 imable by an ordinary examination of 

 the seed delivered to him to see that it 

 is not of the kind and quality repre- 

 sented), and the purchaser plants the 

 seed, and, as a direct result of it being 

 of a different kind or quality from what 

 it was represented to be, suffers damage, 

 he can recover that damage from the 

 vendor of the seed.'.' 



