1871 



THE WESTERN POMOLOGIST. 



13 



now it is only to enclose the order and money for 

 the seeds, even though the seedsman be a thousand 

 or more miles away ; mail it and within a few days 

 we have our package without as much trouble or 

 time taken as would be to go and select the seeds 

 personally, were the dealer next door to our homes. 

 Or again — if we want no seeds, but desire a practi- 

 cal, instructive book of how to grow tliera, these 

 scedmen, (and Vick is perhaps not the least an\ong 

 them,) have got up complete works which tlicy scud 

 out at less than cost of paper and printing, or for 

 the nominal sum of ten cents, which can be sent, 

 them, also by mail. 



►-^■t *■ 



For the Wostern Pomologist. 



Oron^Iug tbe Tomato. 



Bv Prot, C. E. Bessey, Iowa Fabmkrs' Cni.i.noE. 



This vegetable is now so highly valued by nearly 

 all, and moreover of such easy culture, that I am 

 tempted to give to the public through the Pomolo- 

 GIST mj' method of raising it, well aware that I have 

 nothing new for tlie old gax'dencrs, but hoping to 

 give a hint or two to those who are just making a 

 beginning in vegetable raising. I will begin with 



THE HOT BED. 



In the early part of April a hot bed was made of 

 fresh horse manure, on which a frame and sashes 

 were put,after the ordinary style of building hot beds. 

 Into the frame dirt was put to the depth of about 

 six inches. At first the temperature, as shown by 

 the thermometer, was too high, but in a day or two 

 it had fallen to from seventy to eighty degrees 

 Fahrenheit. The seeds were then planted in shal- 

 low drills, and covered not more than a quarter of 

 an inch deep. Every variety as planted was care- 

 fully labeled, so as to guard against all possibility of 

 mistake. The bed was kept quite moist by watering 

 once or twice a day with an ordinar}' watering-pot. 

 In a few days the young plants made their appear- 

 ance in beautiful straight lines, running from side 

 to side like rows in a miniature corn field. Now 

 began the careful work — for not only had the cold 

 to be kept out, but too great a degree of heat had to 

 be guarded against as well. We kept the tempera- 

 ture as high at night as possible — which seldom 

 exceeded fifty or fifty-five degrees — while in clear 

 days, with a good sun, it was allowed to rise to 

 eighty, or even more. As a rule, it is not best to 

 allow as high a degree of heat on cloudy days as on 

 clear ones. 



Every evening the plants were watered, care be- 

 ing taken not to water so freely as to induce decay- 

 ing. As the days became warmer more care was 

 necessary, both as to watering and to keeping the 

 heat. The plants weie allowed to grow in this way 

 until about five or six inches in height, when they 

 received their 



FIRST TRANSPLANTING. 



By this I mean that we took up each plant from 

 the hot-bed and set it in the ground in a sheltered 

 place where the winds could not break off their 

 teiider leaves, and where they could be covered at 

 night whenever there was danger of a frost. In 

 this condition they were watered as carefully as 

 while in the hot-bed ; and it is hardly necessary to 

 add, that they grew rapidly, and acquired a much 

 greater degree of strength than they could have 

 done in the hot-bed. About two or three weeks 

 afterwards they received their 



SECOND TRANSPLANTING. 



This time they were put out into the open ground 

 where they were to remain during the season. In 

 doing this, each plant was careful!}' taken up with 

 a transplanting trowel, as much earth being taken 

 up with each plant as possible. In setting, a hole 

 was first made .somewhat deeper and larger than 

 required for the roots of the plant. The plant was 

 then set in place and the hole about two-thirds 

 filled with earth. A pint or so of water was then 

 poured around the roots and allowed to soak away 

 before the remaining earth was filled in. This 

 water poured around the roots after some of the 

 earth had been filled in, carried the fine particles 

 of earth down around the little rootlets, and gave 

 them a chance to immediately begin supplying the 

 plant with its necessary food and moisture ; while 

 the last portion of dry earth with which the holes 

 were filled prevented the ground from baking 

 around the stem of the plant. 



The subsequent care was of the simplest kind. 

 They were cultivated with an ordinary five-tooth 

 Deere cultivator .several times, and hoed once or 

 twice. When the plants began to be of good size — 

 say from twelve to twenty inches in height — the 

 earth was hilled up around them ; and then nothing 

 more was done excepting occasionally pulling a 

 weed which made its appearance. We did no 

 pinching at all, and did not stick a single stake to 

 induce fruitfulness or aid in ripening ; and still the 

 fruit set very well, and ripened evenly and rapidly. 



Pear Culture. — Mr. P. T. Quinn, of Newark, 

 N. J., thinks that the Duchesse d'Angouleme dwarf 

 pear is the most profitable for cultivation in the 

 vicinity of New York. He says : 



" I have made a careful estimate, and now feel 

 quite confident that I will have 1,300 bushels of 

 marketable Duchesse d'Angouleme, and I have good 

 reason to suppose that this is a larger number of 

 bushels of this variety than have ever been pro- 

 duced from one orchard in a single year in this 

 State. The Duchesse are now selling for |5 per 

 bushel, and I think will advance in price later in the 

 season." 



