154 STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



Preservation of apples in store. — *" Mr. Calvin Pitcher of Bel- 

 fast, Maine, a well known apple-grower, who has forty acres of 

 orchard mostly in bearing, keeps his apples in good condition and 

 flavor, from harvest time till ensuing summer, by exposing the 

 fruit daily to a free circ'ulation of air through the place of storage. 

 lie stored for keeping 1,200 bushels of Baldwins of the crop of 

 1872, and disposed of the last lot in midsummer of IStS, at prices 

 ranging from $1 to $2 per bushel." 



I have, in Bangor, Me., a dry, well ventilated cellar, with a 

 screened north window which is constantly open during the warm 

 season, and is opened in the winter whenever the thermometer 

 rises above 32°, near which I have kept Roxbury Russets sound 

 until the next winter, although they shrivel and lose their crisp- 

 uess and become somewhat insipid during the heat of summer. 



The cultivation of the Tomato in gardens. — About twenty years 

 ago, when visiting (in May) the premises of J. 0. Green, Staten 

 Island, N. Y., under the charge of his accomplished English gar- 

 dener, William Chorlton, I noticed in a small hot-house constructed 

 for the purpose, tomato vines loaded with ripening fruit. The 

 plant was so trained under the glass that it had grown many feet 

 in length in a single stem, with no side branches ; and the abun- 

 dant clusters hung down at short distances from each other like 

 pendant bunches of grapes, presenting a most beautiful spectacle. 



It then occurred to me that similar training might be applied to 

 the growing tomato in the garden, with equally successful results. 

 Accordingly, stakes seven or eight feet long were inserted in the 

 ground, the last of May, three feet apart, in a warm, sheltered 

 location, and strong tomato plants were procured which had been 

 started under glass and contained one or two blossom buds. 

 These were planted near the stakes. The plant was then tied to 

 the stake with listing, and all the side branches which had pushed 

 at the axillaj or angles formed by the separation of the leaves, 

 were pinched or cut out with scissors, so as to compel the plant to 

 grow in a single stem ; and every week during the season these 

 branches are removed, and the stems from time to time are tied to 

 the stake. When a sufficient number of clusters have formed, the 

 remainder may be removed so as to concentrate the whole energies 

 of the plant to the growth and ripening of the remaining tomatoes ; 

 and the heaviest bunches may need to be supported by tying them 



* Department of Agriculture, Report 1873, page 279. 



