346 Transactions of the Aherican Institute. 



club by Mr, J, B. Lyman, who said they were from the garden of 

 Mr, William Farmelee ; and in conversation with him he gathered 

 the folhiwing account of his method of improving this vegetable : 



Mr, Parmelee lives two miles from the center of the city of New 

 Haven, on a tract that was originally a very hungry land, so poor 

 that tlie former owner had starved on twenty acres of it, Mr, P,'s 

 tract is seventeen acres, and by deep tillage and generous manuring he 

 has brought it to a high condition. He has had the greater part of it 

 subsoiled two spades deep. It costs him $100 per acre, but it pays. 

 'The fields thus subsoiled give him no trouble from drought, while the 

 other parts of the tract not thus treated burn up in July and August, 

 unless the season is uncommonly wet. The tomatoes shown were 

 produced by crossing the small round upon the large red. The varie- 

 ties were set out side by side, and thus a tomato uniting the excellences 

 of each is the result. He does not manure heavily for tomatoes, and 

 finds a sandy soil best for them. He fertilizes just around the plant 

 to give rapid growth early in the season ; but in August he prefers to 

 starve the roots more and earlier fruit is obtained. He has been for 

 several years engaged in bringing tlie tomato to the perfection here 

 seen. He uses no support or trellis for the vines and needs none. 

 He germinates the seed in a hot bed by the use of horse manure, and 

 transplants to cold frames where they stand five or six inches apart 

 and grow till warm weather. Then he sets in the field three and a 

 half, or four inches apart each way. For seed, he selects the tomatoes 

 tliat are desirable for shape and size, and have the most solid fiesh. 

 Nearly all his fruit is of the form and size of the specimen exhibited, 

 nine inches in circumference, regular in shape, without seams or 

 partitions, and firm and solid when opened. Some larger tomatoes 

 were on exhibiti(in but none that were in all respects so fine. 



Mr. P. T. Quinn. — I have raised some years as many as 10,000 

 baskets of tomatoes. These on display' are certainly very fine.- The 

 mode of culture adopted by Mr. Parmelee is the sound method, and 

 difiers very little from that of other successful cultivators. It is an 

 excellent sign in a tomato to ripen close up to the stem ; such are 

 ne.ver hollow. It does a tomato good to transplant it. Mr. P. sets 

 his nearer together than most fanners. I generally place mine four feet 

 a])art in the rows, which are of five feet interval, 



Mr, Henry Ilollister, Mount Lebanon, Columbia county, N, Y. — 

 It is almost amusing to see the varied experience in tomato growing, 

 frequently alike, yet much that is contradictory. Our tomatoes were 



