When new. I always give my stakes two or 
three coats of boiling hot coal tar for about 
18 inches of the sharpened end, and if 
properly taken care of they will last for 
years. Having the stakes ready I get a 
heavy hammer and drive down a stake 
about ten inches or a foot, and at the head 
of and to the line. Two and a half feet 
from the other I drive down another stake 
in the same way. And if the stakes are 
made of fence rails, I let the broad sides 
face north and south, and it does not make 
any difference by this method whether the 
rows run north and south, or east and west. 
I have grown tomatoes by the last named 
for over a dozen years. After all the 
stakes are driven I commence to transplant 
the tomatoes; if there has been a recent 
rain, all the better, but if the weather is 
dry I do not wait; in that case, I get a 
pail.of water and a basket of fresh cut 
grass. I then take the tomatoes out of the 
frame and transplant one to the south side 
of each stake, giving each plant about a 
quart of water, and then insert a handfnl 
of grass underneath each plant, putting 
two or three clods of earth on the grass to 
keep it from being blown away. If the 
weather remains dry, each plant will drop 
down on the grass through the day and get 
up again at night; when the grass becomes 
dry the plants are established. I do not 
lose one plant in a score this way, and it 
will do just as well for cabbage and cauli¬ 
flower as tomatoes. When I have finished 
transplanting, I do nothing more but to 
keep them clean and the soil around each 
plant loose. In about three weeks the 
plants will have made their first blossoms, 
which always come out on the main or 
leading stalk. In the axil between the leaf 
and stalk, a shoot always forms, and gen¬ 
erally there is two, sometimes three, shoots 
below the first blossoms on each plant. I 
then take a sharp pen knife and cut out all 
the shoots below the first blossoms; then 
tie up the plant to the stake just below the 
bloseoms. For that purpose I use old wool¬ 
en or cotten cloth cut into strips which I 
find to be the cheapest and best. Beyond 
keeping them clean I do nothing farther 
until the next blossoms come out, then I 
go over the vines and cut out all the shoots 
that have formed between the first and 
second blossoms, and so on until each to¬ 
mato vine reaches the top of each stake, 
tying them to the stake about three times. 
Then 1 do not prune any more at the top, 
but keep off all shoots down below, for it is 
a fact that always two, sometimes three 
shoots will start from the same place. If 
any accident should happen to the leading 
shoot at the top of the vine, then another 
or the next shoot must take its place. 
I do not claim that I originated this 
method of growing tomatoes, although I 
have practiced it for over twenty years, 
and have never yet met with a failure. No 
matter what kind of a season it may be, 
this plan always gives satisfaction, and 
plenty of ripe tomatoes. Having no side' 
branches the plant pushes up to the top of 
the stake with great rapidity. The fruit is 
not smothered by the foliage, and 
ripens and colors up evenly. The tomatoes 
are always large, well formed and of good 
flavor, and they will not average one rotten 
tomato to a bushel, and last but not least, 
the fruit is easily gathered, especially by 
the women,, as even after a rain they can 
go and gather the tomatoes and not wet 
their skirts. In the March number of 
Seed-Time and Harvest I see some one 
recommends tying tomatoes to sunflower 
stalks. I do not like that method, I think 
the tomatoes ought to have the whole- 
ground and above all things, I think hens 
ought to be kept out of a garden. There is 
also another reason why I object to the 
sunflower as a stake for tomatoes. If there 
was more than one row of tomatoes the. 
sunflower would shade the next row behind: 
now no tomato ought to be grown in the 
shade, especially of houses and trees. If any 
of your readers think of adopting this 
method of growing tomatoes, I hope they 
will not make the mistake of cutting away 
the leaves. A leaf is not a shoot; the shoc4 
will make a branch and many leaves if 
allowed to grow. I have written this out 
at length, mainly for the benefit of ama¬ 
teurs like myself, more particularly those 
that know little or nothing about tomato 
culture. 
[Our correspondent referred to, meant to 
recommend dry sunflower stakes of pre¬ 
vious year’s growth, we tnink, and not 
growing plants.— Ed.] 
