8 
MAY. 
Young May is on the mountain J 
The valley, hill and plain 
Resound with notes of gladness 
At her return again. 
The brook sends up its music, 
The wild bird trills her lay; 
From dawn till evening shadows 
She carols on the spray. 
Young May is here to greet us, 
With her bright and gladsome hours, 
Bearing on her balmy pinions 
The breath of early flowers; 
The violet by the brooklet 
Looks up with loving eye, 
And with her gayer visitors 
Smiles as she's passing by. 
Sweet Maj r , thou'rt ever welcome, 
And our hearts oft swell with grief, 
That one so fair and winsome 
Should have a stay so brief. 
We’d joy to have thee linger 
Forever in our bowers, 
To cheer us with thy brightness, 
Thy singing birds and flowers. 
Theda C. E 
Growing Tomatoes. 
Some time ago, I promised if you de¬ 
sired, to give you my method of growing 
tomatoes, and also my experience and that 
of some of my neighbors in growing cel¬ 
ery. You say it will please you to have me 
do this, so I have concluded to begin with 
tomatoes. Celery is a kind of second crop, 
$md as what I have to say about the grow¬ 
ing of it is mainly in the handling and 
bleaching, I will write again before the 
time comes to do that work. 
I raise all my early plants in a cold frame. 
Formerly I made a hot bed, but found it 
did not pay for the extra trouble. There is 
very little sale for plants here, and none 
whatever for the matured vegetable, so I 
only raise enough for my own family. The 
frame I have is in a sunny part of my gar¬ 
den, and raised a foot from the ground. 
About eighteen inches from the sides of the 
frame I have boards, which at the back and 
sides are nearly the height of the frame; 
between the frame and the boards I fill in 
with forest leaves, well trod down, these 
help to keep in the heat and also keep out 
the cold. The soil in the frame is com¬ 
posed of about equal parts of well rotted 
manure and leaves, with good garden soil 
and sand. About the last week in March I 
dig over the soil in the frame and make it 
fine, and then put on the glass for three or 
four days, so as to get the scil warm. 
Then I sow my tomato seeds, taking a little 
extra trouble and time, first being sure 
my seed is good. I sow the seed on the 
surface, and no nearer together than an inch 
apart, if any of them come up thicker I 
pull them out, but would rather not dis¬ 
turb the plants in the seed bed. After I 
have sown the seed, I press them in well 
with a trowel, then cover with from an 
eighth to a quarter of an inch of nice sand, 
which I know to be free from weed seeds, 
then water well, and always with tepid 
water. I never let the seeds or plants get 
dry in the frame. Then put on the glass 
and let it stay until the plants make their 
appearance. After that I take off the glass 
when the days are fine, and keep it on 
nights and stormy days, and if there are 
any sign of frost, cover with a blanket. 
When the plants are four or five inches 
high I do away with the glass altogether. 
Usually the first week in June I prepare 
and rake over the ground where the toma¬ 
toes are to grow; get a strong garden line 
the length of the row I want, and here let 
me say, the longer the row the better to 
keep clean, either by hand or horse power. 
I then drive down pegs at each end and 
stretch the line very tight, then step on the 
line from end to end. This makes a very 
straight and distinct mark. If more than 
one row is wanted I measure off four feet 
from each end of the first row, then strike 
another line as befoie, and so on for as many 
as may be wanted. Then I get my stakes, 
but here I had better describe them. Any 
hard or soft wood will do for stakes, if 
anything like straight. For part of my 
stakes I am now using the limbs of soft 
maple trees; if such cannot be had, good 
stakes can be made from fence rails. Take 
14 feet fence rails, free from large knots, 
strike a chalk line in the middle and from 
end to end, then saw in two and divide 
both into equal parts, these will make four 
stakes 7 feet long 3 inches wide and one 
inch thick; then sharpen the end of each. 
# 
