No. 4.] MARKET GARDENING. 53 



fruits to mature, then go through and harvest those mature 

 fruits, take them to the wash-house, allow them to get thor- 

 oughly ripe, pick out those which come nearest the type I 

 desire, and throw the others away. That gives us a few 

 very nice seeds. That brings the crop on earlier, planting 

 from this select seed, so that now the greater })art of our 

 tomatoes are sold in the month of August, instead of the 

 month of September. My returns from tomatoes in the past 

 year have averaged 30 cents a plant. 



Question. How near together is the fruit? 



Mr. Howard. The rows are (^yo feet apart, and the plants 

 3 feet apart in the row. The tirst tomatoes were picked the 

 seventh day of July. 



Question. Do you trellis the plants, — support them in 

 any way? 



Mr. Howard. No, sir. 



Question. Trim off the top? 



Mr. Howard, Trim the tops oft', if they are too rank. 



Question. Don't they sprawl all over the gronnd, and 

 lie down? 



Mr. Howard. In the cultivation of tomatoes we ridge 

 the ground ; we plow up to them, and make a mound fully 

 10 inches higher than the space between the rows, and that 

 over a distance of perhaps 21/^ feet, which gives a nice ridge 

 over Avhich to lay the vines. We don't let the vines sprawl 

 around ; we go around and take each vine and lay it right 

 out where it ouoht to be, a man on each side of the row : 

 and then if the vines grow too rank, — too much wet 

 weather or too much manure on the ground, — we take a 

 sickle and cut those tops off", two men on a row, one on 

 each side. That enables the fruit which is set to mature 

 earlier. We don't care anything about the late tomatoes on 

 those vines ; if we Avant any late tomatoes, we set the plants 

 especially for that. 



Question. What variety of tomatoes ? 



Mr. Howard. The variety which I have used has been 

 Livingstone's Perfection. I have tried a number of other 

 varieties, some proving quite satisfactory, and perhaps as 

 good as the Perfection, but the Perfection has been good 



