A Better Way of Buying Vegetable Plants— w. e. Pendleton, 



Pennsyl- 



HOW TO GET VARIETIES OF TOMATOES, EGG-PLANTS, AND PEPPERS OF THE BEST QUALITY FOR HOME USE, INSTEAD 

 OF UNKNOWN VARIETIES FROM THE CORNER GROCER OR THOSE COMMERCIAL VARIETIES WHICH LACK QUALITY 



WHEN you buy plants of tomatoes, egg- 

 plants or peppers at the corner grocery, 

 the chances are that no name will be attached. 

 You can never make any progress in garden- 

 ing unless you start with named varieties. 

 Even if the grocer offers named varieties, 

 you cannot be sure that they are truly named. 

 And if even they are truly named, you have 

 no assurance that the plants are the product 

 of high-bred seeds A better way to do is 

 to buy your vegetable plants from seedsmen 

 of established reputation. Almost every- 

 body can do this, because these plants can 

 be safely shipped a three days' journey. 

 Inasmuch as The Garden Magazine likes 

 to be on the saving side, I would advise you 

 not to order these vegetable plants from any 

 one who is more than two days distant. The 

 only possible objection to this plan is that 

 the plants may, by some accident, be delayed 

 in the express office and reach you in a wilted 

 condition, but that can be easily remedied. 

 Simply soak the balls in water for from five 

 to fifteen minutes and shade the plants for 

 a few days after setting them out. There 

 is no danger of losing them if that little bit 

 of ordinary attention be given. 



BUY FROM A SEEDSMAN 



A still stronger inducement to buy these 

 vegetable plants from a seedsman instead 

 of from a corner grocery is that you may 

 pick out the varieties adapted to home 

 cultivation, whereas the grocer is almost 

 certain to have only varieties adapted to 

 market conditions. Thus you can select 

 for quality. Every one of the varieties 

 mentioned in this article may be obtained 

 between May 15th and June 1st, which is 

 the regular time to set out these plants, and 

 they all stand for quality and home use. 



I do not pretend that amateurs can get 

 better vegetable plants from the seedsmen 

 than they can raise themselves. The ideal 

 way is to have a hotbed or coldframe so 

 that you can start these long-season, heat- 

 loving plants in March and harden them 

 before planting out. Then you can choose 

 the most favorable conditions for trans- 

 planting, but many people are not willing 

 to take this trouble, and there are thousands 

 who move on the first of May or who, for 

 other reasons, cannot begin their gardens 

 until it is too late to sow these seeds. 



QUALITY IN TOMATOES 



A quality tomato, according to my defin- 

 ition, must be meaty as opposed to mushy. 

 A "mushy" tomato is one in which a cross- 

 section shows the three cells and it contains 

 too many seeds. In the meaty variety, the 

 cell walls are multiplied to such an extent 

 that the cellular structure is lost. Many 

 of the market varieties are mushy. The 

 meaty variety gives you more for your money. 

 Many people think the scarlet tomatoes are 



more beautiful than the pink ones. Neither 

 color is associated with quality. If you 

 want an early pink tomato, get June Pink 

 or Earliest Pink ; if you want a scarlet early, 

 get Earliana. 



The following are meaty, main crop varie- 

 ties. If you want a very large, pink variety 

 choose Ponderosa ; If you prefer a medium- 

 sized, pink variety, choose Tenderloin; if 

 you want a scarlet variety, choose Crimson 

 Cushion. None of these are as attractive 

 in appearance as many of those commonly 

 grown for market, because they are more 

 likely to be wrinkled, and there is often a 

 green portion next the stem which does not 

 ripen and, therefore, has to be cut out. 

 These varieties have such large fruits that 

 they had better be grown on an inclined 

 chicken-wire trellis, or in some other way 

 which will keep them from breaking off, 

 without giving you the bother to support 

 them. 



If you want a tomato adapted for training 

 to a single stem, choose Freedom. Its flesh 

 is not so solid as that of the five preceding, 

 but the variety is an enormous cropper, and 

 as the fruit is of medium size, it will not 

 break off. 



QUALITY IN EGG-PLANTS 



The plain truth is that there is little choice 

 between the different varieties of egg-plant 

 so far as variety is concerned, but it does 

 make a great difference as to whether you 

 get cheap seed or good seed, because the 

 seeds of egg-plants have to be bred with 

 unusual care. They require constant selec- 

 tion in order to keep the fruit true to shape 

 and color. Moreover, the chances are that 

 egg-plants bought from a corner grocery 

 will not be of as productive a strain as those 

 you can get from a seedsman of national 

 reputation. 



QUALITY EST PEPPERS 



Americans do not like hot peppers. We 

 prefer the mild, sweet peppers for salads, 

 but you might as well have a thick-fleshed 

 variety as a thin-fleshed kind. The Chinese 



Giant is the largest sweet pepper, and is 

 admirable for salads but too large for stuffing. 

 If you want a medium-sized pepper for both 

 purposes, choose Sweet Mountain or Bull 

 Nose. The former is a trifle longer and 

 therefore more desirable for stuffing. 



Earliana the best early scarlet lomalo : fruits large, 

 many to a cluster. Season four weeks long 



Some people fancy a longer pepper and 

 therefore buy Ruby King, which is no better 

 in quality than the two preceding. It does 

 particularly well in the South. In the 

 North, it does not set its fruit so freely as the 

 others. 



[Note. — The Garden Magazine offers 

 $10.00 for the best account of vegetable 

 plants raised as a result of reading this article. 

 The varieties need not be those here recom- 

 mended, but they must definitely stand for 

 quality and for adaptability to home use. 

 We suggest that you get the same variety 

 from the seedsman of national reputation 

 and from a local grocery and keep accurate 

 record like that described by Mr. J. L. Kayan 

 in his article entitled "A Vest-Pocket System 

 of Garden Records," in the February, 1907, 

 Garden Magazine, page 21.J 



Sweet Mountain a medium-sized sweet pepper. 

 289 



Good either for stuffing and baking or for salads 



