177 SOLANACEOUS 
CROPS 
the slats, the fruits ripen uniformly, and usually 
with a smaller percentage of rot than where they 
lie on the ground. 
If your garden is situated where frosts are apt 
to come as early as August, you should plant 
your tomatoes against the south side of the 
house or out-building and cover them at night, 
—a point worth noting for all tender plants. 
In “ Vegetable Gardening,”’ Green suggests an 
ingenious yet simple method of raising enough 
tomatoes for family use where the season is too 
short to raise them in the field or garden. Get 
three or four barrels about the size of a coal-oil 
barrel, bore several holes in the bottom of each, 
then sink about one-third their depth in the 
ground in the warmest corners of your land. 
When this has been done, fill each barrel 
about half full of fresh horse manure well 
tramped down, and pour over it a bucketful 
of hot water to start fermentation. On top 
of this put eight inches of good soil, then a 
mixture of well-rotted manure and good black 
loam in equal quantities up to about twelve 
inches from the top of the barrel. Heap manure 
up around the outside of your barrel. Plant, 
say three stocky plants in each barrel, trimming 
them to two shoots each. Tie one shoot from 
each plant to stakes or some nearby support, 
12 
