A POWERFUL “ AXFITTER.” BOTTLED-MILK DAIRY. 
Vol. LVIII. No. 2567. 
NEW YOKE, APRIL 8, 1899. 
$1 PER YEAR. 
i 
BIG TOMATOES UNDER GLASS. 
ahead of Southern tomatoes. 
How They Are Grown. 
Although many growers of glasshouse vegetables 
consider that there is little money in tomato raising 
because of the southern product, we meet with some 
specialists, who devote themselves to this work, 
always securing a much higher price than that ob¬ 
tained for the southern product. As The R. N.-Y. has 
stated before, glass-grown tomatoes must be of a very 
high quality, because they are purchased by a fastidi¬ 
ous trade. The only way in which they may compete 
with southern fruit is by being superior. 
Every variety of tomato is not suitable for forcing, 
and we find the best results obtained with varieties 
belonging to the forcing type, which have been 
selected for a considerable period with this form of 
culture in view. For this reason, some of our best 
forcing tomatoes are of English origin. Among Amer¬ 
ican sorts, Stone, Lorillard and Ignotum are grown, 
but of late, the preference appears to have been given 
to the English, such as Best of All. In Figs. 104 and 106, 
we show two fine forcing varieties, Best of All and 
Frogmore Select. These tomatoes, photographed March 
11 , were grown by Mr. H. H. Stevens of Millburn, N. J. 
“What is the special advantage of Frogmore 
Select ? ” we asked Mr. Stevens. 
“It is valuable for producing an early crop, 
fruiting satisfactorily during the dull days of 
early Winter.” 
“ When do you sow the Frogmore ? ” 
“ My first sowing is made about August 10. The 
seed is sown in a shallow box about 13 x 12 inches. 
I place broken crocks at the bottom of the box, 
then a compost made by mixing three parts of 
well-decayed manure with two parts of decayed 
sod, well mixed together, pressed lightly, and 
made smooth on top. The seed is sown thinly, 
covered with very finely-sifted soil, which is a 
mixture of sand, leaf mold and loam, equal parts. 
1 place the box in the warm end of the forc¬ 
ing house, putting a square of glass over it, 
until the seed has germinated. Then I put 
the box close to the glass, which keeps the 
seedlings from 
growing weak or 
spindling.” 
“When are 
they trans¬ 
planted ? " 
“When they 
show their sec¬ 
ond leaf. I pot 
them in two-inch 
pots. The next 
shift is to six- 
inch pots, which 
are half-plunged 
in the soil, on 
benches, the pots 
being 15 inches 
apart each way.” 
“Do you use 
the same sort of 
soil as before ? ” 
□ “ The soil used 
in the pots is 
broken sod, and 
no manure. No crock in the bottom of the pot is 
necessary, as the soil on the bench would not be more 
than six inches deep, and gives all the drainage re¬ 
quired.” 
“ How do you feed these plants ? ” 
“ Three times a week they are watered with liquid 
manure. Each plant is grown on a single stem, all 
aide shoots being pinched out.” 
“ Is not the leader stopped ? ” 
“ Not until it reaches the glass. The plants will 
grow 15 feet, if there is room, and fruit from the bot¬ 
tom to the top, trained up on strings fastened to wire 
at the top, and a string across the center of the pots, 
at the bottom, fastened each side of the bench. The 
string or wire to which the plant is trained is tied 
firm in the center of the pot.” 
“ When did you sow Best of 
All for the later crop ? ” 
“ About October 15. I treat 
it just the same as Frogmore 
Select.” 
“ Do you water the 
plants over the foliage, 
when they are in flower?” 
“I do not spray my 
plants at all over the 
leaves, either in flow¬ 
er or out of flower.” 
“ D]o you 
find it profit¬ 
able to pol- 
leniz-e the 
plants artifi¬ 
cially ? ” 
“ I make it a 
rule, when the 
plants are i n 
bioom, to go 
along the house 
and tap the 
strings up 
which the 
plants are 
trained, with a 
stick, about 12 
o’clock. It 
makes no difference whether the sun is shining or not, 
with the two varieties I grow. This is the only way 
I pollenize, and I have no trouble in inducing them to 
set fruit. But this is not the case with many other 
varieties.” 
“ How long do these vines remain in bearing ? ” 
“ About five months. I have not been troubled with 
any disease.” 
SUTTON’S BEST OF ALL TOMATO. NATURAL SIZE. Fig. 104. 
“ What is the usual temperature ? ” 
“ About 65 degrees at night, with a rise of 15 to 20 
degrees in the day. It is best, at all times, to keep 
the house dry.” 
The fruits shown in Figs. 104 and 106 were grown 
on plants about 14 feet high. Mr. Stevens disposed of 
his crop in New York and Boston, the prices in Boston 
being much higher than in New York, from 50 to 75 
cents a pound being mentioned as prices received dur¬ 
ing the past Winter. It will be remembered that New 
England growers of vegetables under glass expressed 
to The R. N.-Y. some doubt as to the possibility of 
glass-house tomatoes paying them. It would seem 
that they pay when carefully grown, as in the case of 
Mr. Stevens; but naturally, their culture is more 
costly than that of lettuce, which can be grown by 
the wholesale, with comparatively untrained labor. 
The successful tomato growers are expert gardeners, 
accustomed to the highest development of their pro¬ 
fession. 
The Freeze and Glasshouse Products. 
Mr. Stevens’s product being of such a high quality, 
would appeal to one special line of trade; hence, 
would not be so strongly moved by ordinary market 
fluctuations. This season, however, the extraordinary 
cold weather through the South, which has worked 
great detriment to truck growers generally, will 
materially increase the prices of hothouse tomatoes, 
in common with other greenhouse-grown vege¬ 
tables. We asked several large northern grow¬ 
ers what effect the freeze would have upon their 
business. W. W. Rawson observes that he 
judges by the effect of a 
similar freeze in 1895, when 
it affected the prices dur¬ 
ing the entire season. This 
season the prices have al¬ 
ready increased very ma¬ 
terially. G. M. Kendall, 
who has had wide experi¬ 
ence in hothouse cucum¬ 
bers, states that, in his 
opinion, the freeze will 
give eastern growers of 
vegetables under glass, a 
good market for at least 
five months, and will in¬ 
crease prices in their favor fully 20 per cent. 
Dr. Jabez Fisher, who this Winter is particularly 
interested in tomatoes under glass, considers that the 
prices of glasshouse products will be materially 
higher for several weeks to come, though before the 
freeze prices were higher than a year or two years 
ago. He observes that most of the products of the 
house are much superior in quality to those received 
from the South, and for that reason sell at better 
prices in competition with them; still the competition 
does much to depress prices. Dr. Fisher observes that 
it is unfortunate that one section must thrive at the 
expense of another. 
Wm. Proctor states that the freeze throughout the 
South has decidedly increased the value of hothouse 
products. At the time he wrote us (March 15) he was 
receiving $17 a hundred for cucumbers, which had sold 
during the past three years, at this time, for from $10 
to $12.50 a hundred. Vegetables have advanced much 
in prices over those of the last two years, especially 
tomatoes. Mr. Proctor considers that prices will re¬ 
main better until the South makes up for the time 
lost. Business is improving, and wages in the manu¬ 
facturing establishments in New England have ad¬ 
vanced 10 per cent, which will help to keep up prices. 
This is especially the case in the local market. Mr. 
Proctor considers that, owing to the commercial im¬ 
provement, prices would have shown an improvement 
over last year even without the change affected by 
the Eouthern freeze. 
