136 MAKING HORTICULTURE PAY 



FIELD FORCING VEGETABLES 



The forcing- of early vegetables has become a 

 business of considerable magnitude, and a person 

 may well ask, Does it pay, and, if so, can I hope to 

 succeed? "My own work," says E. E. Adams of 

 Essex county, Ontario, " has been growing for early 

 market tomatoes, peppers, cabbage, beans, musk- 

 melons, and sweet corn in the field, not under 

 glass. Plants of all but corn are, of course, started, 

 not in hotbeds, but in glass houses heated by steam. 



" In preparing the soil for growing these plants 

 in the houses I usually pile up sods taken from 

 either sandy or clay loam fields, and pile up with 

 alternate layers of fresh horse manure, letting this 

 stand over winter and cutting up fine as early in the 

 spring as possible. This gives a soil containing a 

 large amount of fiber; it does not dry out quickly, 

 and in decomposing feeds the plants for a consider- 

 able time. 



" The soil for field culture should be fairly rich 

 in humus, clover or well-decayed manure being 

 turned under in the fall. Either of these will be 

 well incorporated in the soil by the following Aiay. 



" Tomato and cucumber seeds are sown in mod- 

 erately rich soil in flats the latter part of February. 

 Tomato plants are pricked out into other soil in 

 two or three weeks, being given at this time a soil 

 space of 4 X 6 inches, and then again moved the 

 latter part of April or first week in May into veneer 

 sections 5x5x5 inches with no bottoms, or, they 

 can be moved into flats for convenience in handling. 

 The flats I use are 12 x 22 inches inside and 5 inches 

 deep. These flats are placed upon the benches and 

 the plants grown to the desired size, then moved 

 and covered with cotton. I put eight plants to 



