NOTES ON WINTER GARDENING. IOI 



growers, however, prefer to pull the plants, carefully shaking off 

 all dirt before packing. The demand is best and the prices 

 are highest in February and March, at which time the heaviest 

 crop should mature. In Boston and other eastern markets the 

 prices range from sixty cents to $i per dozen heads and often 

 higher. 



Profits. — Supposing the plants to be set 6x6 inches, we should 

 have four plants per square foot. At sixty cents per dozen 

 this would be twenty cents per square foot for each crop or 

 say fifty cents for the season, as the net proceeds from the 

 house, — a very favorable showing when compared with other 

 crops. 



Tomato. 



The improved facilities for shipping and the increased extent 

 of the' market gardening industry in the South have to a certain 

 extent reduced the demand for hot-house tomatoes; they often 

 bring $i per pound, however, and seldom in mid winter fall 

 below forty or fifty cents in the Boston markets. In New York 

 competition is stronger and prices are lower, but in most cases 

 the cost of growing and marketing will not exceed thirty or 

 thirty-five cents. Even in the face of southern competition 

 the tomato may be profitably grown, for there is always a 

 demand on the part of some people for the best and the very 

 novelty of hot-house fruit will often count for as much as its 



unquestioned superiority.* 



Cucumber. 



The secret of success in growing cucumbers is to have a light, 

 rich soil, good light, strong bottom heat and uniformly high 

 temperature. The ideal house for cucumbers is one which is 

 large enough to allow the vines to attain a good size without 

 interfering with each other; which has rather a flat roof and 

 which will allow ventilation without permitting a draft to strike 

 the plants. A large house is preferable to a small one as the 

 temperature is less quickly affected by outside conditions. As 

 a means of bottom heat, steam or hot water pipes may be 

 used; or if the plants are grown in solid beds fermenting 

 manure is often employed. In our own practice, the plants 

 have been grown in shallow beds heated with steam or hot 

 water. 



* For further notes concerning the forcing of tomatoes see Annual Report Maine 

 Experiment Station 1894, p. 55. 



