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TOMATOES 



three years in the West. I believe in this case it is still In- 

 diana. We find that there are two methods of cultivation 

 there, one called "average," which resembles the work car- 

 ried on by the average farmer in that location, the other 

 "thorough cultivation." What did thorough cultivation con- 

 sist of in 1910? It consisted of fifteen cultivations and ten 

 hoeings, where the average was four cultivations. That year 

 there seemed to be very little profit, one over the other. The 

 average difference was three dollars and a half in favor of 

 thorough cultivation. 



Taking these figures as a whole for the three years, we 

 find the average difference in favor of thorough cultivation 

 above all expenses is twenty-four dollars and seventy cents 

 per acre. That may mean the difference in many cases be- 

 tween profit and loss. The figures are as follows: 



Three Year Test. 

 1910 



Cost Yield Value crop 



Kind per acre per acre per acre 



Average $ 2.00 2.52 T. $ 25.20 



Thorough 19.50 4.6 T. 46.30 



1911 



Average 3.00 9.75 97.50 



Thorough 7.50 13.78 137.80 



1912 



Average 1.50 9.49 94.90 



Thorough 5.50 13.36 133.60 



Pruning and Staking. 



I find a great many men in New York State are asking this 

 question : What about staking and training and pruning the 

 plants? Is it practicable? It is rather a perplexing ques- 

 tion. How many men know about the conditions in Ohio, 

 where five hundred acres are worked in this way? They use 

 stakes, prune their tomatoes, and grow them in most up-to- 

 date ways. However, few men know just what market these 

 men grow for. It is for the early market entirely. 



