PREPARATION OF THE SOIL 49 



Tomato plants from cuttings may be easily grown, 

 but such plants, when planted in the open ground, do 

 not yield as much fruit as seedlings nor is this apt 

 to be of so good quality ; so that, in practice, seed- 

 lings only are used for outside crops. Under glass, 

 plants from cuttings do relatively better and some 

 growers prefer them, as they commence to fruit earlier 

 and do not make so rank a growth. 



Seedlings can be most easily started and grown, at 

 least up to the time of pricking out, in light, well- 

 ventilated greenhouses, and many large growers have 

 them for this specific purpose. Houses for starting 

 tomato plants should be so situated as to be fully ex- 

 posed to the sun and not shaded in any way ; be pro- 

 vided with heating apparatus by which a night tem- 

 perature of 60 and up to one of 80 F. in the day- 

 can be maintained even in the coldest weather and 

 darkest days likely to occur for 60 to 90 days before 

 the plants can be safely set out in the open field ; and 

 the houses should be well glazed and ventilated. 



Houses well suited for this purpose are often built 

 of hotbed sash with no frame but a simple ridge-board 

 and sides i or 2 feet high, head room being gained by 

 a central sunken path and the sash so fastened in place 

 that they may be easily lifted to give ventilation or 

 entirely removed to give full exposure to sunshine, 

 or for storing when the house is not needed. Hotbed 

 sash 3x6 feet with side-bars projecting at the ends 

 to facilitate fastening them in place are usually kept 

 by dealers, who offer them at from $1.50 to $3 each, 

 according to the quality of the material used. 



A hot water heating apparatus is the best, but often 



