6i8 



THE TOMATO A AD ITS CLLTLRE. 



October fruited freely for nearly a month before the 

 older plants had any berries worth picking. At the end 

 of the season they did well, though, of course, at 

 lower prices ; yet the tail end of the crop rarely fails to 

 net 8 or lo cents per quart. Many large growers re- 

 served a small bed for plants of which the Nunan is 

 exceedingly prolific after June, and plowed under the 

 old beds to reset this fall. As this plan requires but 

 little cultivation after the plants are set, the four-foot 

 bed with three rows and plants one foot apart each 

 way is about the best and most economical. As to 

 manures, there is nothing better than cow manure, if 

 plenty of it can be had. If not, then bone meal or a 

 good superphosphate will give excellent results. Cot- 

 ton seed meal is so stimulating that I am almost con- 



vinced that on fairly good ground it had better be dis- 

 carded altogether, A bed manured last fall with bone- 

 meal alone, at the rate of one ton to the acre, has made 

 me magnificent berries. Our soil is naturally very poor, 

 and requires heavy manuring for several years to get 

 the best results. On new land, one part cotton seed 

 meal to two parts bone meal, or dissolved bone, would 

 be an excellent application. We are troubled here very 

 little with insect or fungus pests. The cut-worm in fall 

 and early winter is the most annoying, but a weak mix- 

 ture of Paris green and water, a teaspoonful to two 

 gallons of water is a good proportion, sprayed over the 

 vines will kill them if applied regularly and thor- 

 oughly. H. M. Stringfellow. 

 Galveston Co., Texas. 



THE TOMATO AND ITS CULTURE. 



HERE IS no vegetable that is 

 not a staple article of food that 

 is more generally esteemed and 

 cultivated than the tomato. It 

 has in the past twenty years 

 grown into popular favor to 

 such an extent as to require the 

 culture of many thousands o^ 

 acres to provide the necessary 

 quantity that is demanded for 

 use, either in the fresh state or for the purpose of 

 canning and manufacture into catsup. In the 

 smallest of home gardens, as well as in the market 

 gardens all over the country, adjacent to the large 

 towns and cities and in the truckers' fields of the 

 south from Virginia to Florida, the culture of the 

 tomato is a prominent feature of gardening effort. 

 The area devoted to the tomato will doubtless con- 

 tinue to be enlarged annually. 



Of the hundred or more named sorts listed in the 

 various catalogues, it is only necessary to name a few 

 for practical purposes, for the market gardener or 

 trucker is not likely to include more than two or three 

 kinds in cultivation. The most approved sorts, either 

 for home or shipping purposes, are found among the 

 following : The Beauty, Ignotum, Paragon, Volun- 

 teer, Green Gage, Mikado, Golden Queen. All of 

 these are fine varieties, and it is difficult to say which is 

 the superior variety. The first three are a grand trio, 

 and when seed from a well-preserved strain is used can 

 hardly fail to give satisfaction. The last named is a 

 superb yellow kind, and for slicing raw is preferred by 

 many to all other sorts. 



Other good varieties, of course, can be named, but 

 taken as a whole it would be difficult to find seven 

 other varieties equal to these just named. The trucker 

 soon comes to a decision as to which variety suits his 

 soil better than all others, and he confines his planting 



mostly to that one variety, taking pains every year to 

 maintain, even if he cannot improve its quality, by 

 selection of the finest specimens for seed, being governed 

 in his selection by the vigor and healthfulness of the 

 vine, rejecting seed from any vine that has been affected 

 with rot. 



While propagation from cuttings has frequently been 

 practiced, and in many instances highly commended, 

 the average cultivator will not need to make more than 

 one or two tests to satisfy him that the most satisfactory 

 and practicable method is to grow the late as well as the 

 early crop from the seed. Vines from cuttings are not 

 nearly so productive as those grown from the seed, and 

 there is no difficulty whatever in securing plants for any 

 season on a month's notice. 



In southern latitudes hot beds are rarely resorted to, as 

 much better plants can be grown in cold frames. In 

 the latitude of middle Georgia (33°) plants for the main 

 crop are not desired before the first of April, and these 

 are readily obtained by sowings in cold frames during 

 the month of February. Where it is not desired to 

 give the plants one transplanting before transferring to 

 the open ground, sowings in the frames early in March 

 give plants large enough for transplanting by the first of 

 April. But the gardener who believes in making the 

 largest crops possible, and who has once observed the 

 plan of transplanting the plants once before setting in 

 the open ground, is not likely to be satisfied with using 

 plants that have been grown to a proper size in crowded 

 seed beds. There is so much gained by having stocky, 

 well-rooted plants to make the start in the open ground 

 with, that it will always be found to pay to make the 

 sowings in the frames in February, and just as the young 

 plants are large enough to allow of it, draw them out 

 and resetthem in other frames at a distance three by three 

 inches apart, where they are allowed to grow for two or 

 three weeks and get strong and stocky. When such plants 

 as are thus raised, are transferred to the open ground, few 

 fail to live ; and they grow off very rapidly and are soon 

 beyond the danger line from cut worms or other insects- 



