No. 4.] MARKET GARDENING. 79 



hay. Our stock is fed entirely upon sweet corn stalks and 

 cow-pea hay. Our work horses have had nothing since 

 October but sweet corn stalks, wheat bran and a little oil 

 meal. 



Tomatoes. — Our next year's crop will be grown on a light, 

 sandy field, that produced a heavy crop of cow-peas last year. 

 Early Ruby is the local variety for first crop. The plants are 

 started in a hotbed and pricked out into small strawberry 

 boxes, which will be put right into the hill. Our home- 

 made fertilizer serves well for tomatoes, and, if they do not 

 make a satisfactory growth, it is easy to apply a small quan- 

 tity of nitrate of soda. My friend Professor Waugh of Ver- 

 mont tells me of a scheme for giving tomato and other seeds 

 an early start, which seems to me worth trying. He says 

 that a seed is like a baby with a patent automatic nursing 

 bottle tied to it. The little germ of the seed is to live on 

 the food that is stored up with it until the roots and leaves 

 are large enough to take hold of our manure and fertilizers. 

 Some seeds may be said to be troubled with dyspepsia. The 

 starchy part is so old or hard or tough that the little germ 

 cannot eat it. We have known people to use pepsin in chew- 

 ing gum and other forms to help digest their food. Pro- 

 fessor Waugh suggests the same treatment for dyspeptic seed, 

 namely, soaking them in a solution of pepsin. With him 

 this has given more plants and stronger ones. Any treat- 

 ment that puts a baby plant or animal on its feet will be felt 

 for good all through its life, and I shall certainly try this 

 treatment. 



Potatoes. — Early varieties pay best with us, and we have 

 found June Eating and Bovee very satisfactory to our cus- 

 tomers. Most of our crop is grown between rows of straw- 

 berries, raspberries and other small fruits. We can use the 

 Robbins potato planter between raspberries, and the tool 

 answers for many other purposes. If we were to try to 

 raise a prize crop of potatoes, we would proceed about as 

 follows : start this year on a warm, well-drained piece of 

 ground, and work it up thoroughly with the Cutaway, prob- 

 ably giving it five or six dift'erent workings. We would then 

 use to the acre a mixture containing one hundred pounds 

 muriate of potash, four hundred pounds basic slag and one 



