VEGETABLES TOMATO. 215 



100 sashes, for, on the second transplanting, about fifty 

 plants only can be grown in a sash, and about 5000 plants 

 are required for an acre. On one occasion, having a very 

 suitable soil, I grew about four acres of Tomatoes for 

 three years, which realized me from $1500 to $2000 annu- 

 ally in receipts ; but I discovered that the operation was 

 a losing one, as, to raise 20,000 plants for my four acres, 

 I had to make use of 400 sashes, in which, in rather less 

 time and with far less labor than it took to grow the To- 

 mato plants, Lettuce could have been grown that would 

 have sold for at least $2 per sash. Thus I lost annually, 

 in preparing for the Tomato plants, half the receipts of the 

 crop, before ever they were even planted. But there are 

 many parts of the country where Lettuce, thus forward- 

 ed, could not be sold, while Tomatoes could, which would 

 materially change the aspect of the operation. In the 

 southern sections of the country, convenient to shipping, 

 Tomatoes are largely grown for the northern markets, and 

 there sold at prices highly remunerative to the grower. 

 In many instances, in the Southern States, the cultivation 

 of Tomatoes for market is carelessly done, the seed being 

 merely sown in the open ground and replanted, as we grow 

 Cabbages. No doubt, by starting in January or Febru- 

 ary with the hot-beds, or even cold frames, and planting 

 out in March or April, they could be had at least two 

 weeks earlier than they are now sent to us. 



There are always some one or more varieties, said to 

 be earlier than others, sent out every spring, but it must 

 be confessed that' the varieties that we cultivated twenty 

 years ago are not in earliness a day behind those issued 

 as " vastly superior " in 1866. Last spring, to test them 



