62 
to the plants, but the later tillage should be more 
shallow in order to avoid injury to the roots. The 
later the cultivation can be continued, the longer the 
picking: season will last, except in seasons of abundant 
rain. Some hand work close about the plants early in 
the season will aid in giving them a good start, but 
if the plants are set so as to be cultivated both ways, 
little hand work is necessary. 
In this section of New Jersey it is customary to 
support the plants by means of stakes. A five-foot 
cedar stake is driven alongside each plant. When 
the plant has reached a height of 15 or 18 inches 
it is tied to the stake with a soft, stout twine. The 
twine is first tied tightly about the stake so that it will 
not slip; then it is tied loosely about the plant so 
as not to bind and injure the stems as they increase 
in size. When the plant has grown a foot more, it is 
tied again; and a third tying is usually necessary when 
the plant has reached nearly to the top of the stake. 
The advantages as we see it of staking and tying 
tomatoes instead of allowing them to spread over the 
ground are that in cool seasons the fruit ripens more 
readily; in a wet season they are less subject to rot, 
and in a dry season the plants can be kept thrifty 
and productive by continuous cultivation, long after 
untrained plants have ceased to bear. 
When we grow tomatoes for the canning houses, 
we do not care to plant early; since the crop is con¬ 
tracted at a low price, cheap methods must be put in 
practice. The plants are started rather late in the 
hotbed or cold frame, from which they are trans¬ 
planted directly to the field while still quite small, and 
are all set with a dibber. They are cultivated by 
machinery, and are not staked or tied. The method of 
picking and handling our tomato crop depends upon 
the purpose for which we have planted it. If intended 
for home use, local market, or canning, the fruits 
are allowed to fully mature upon the vine, but if for 
distant shipment, they are picked as soon as they 
begin to color up. We grade our tomatoes only for 
shipment to distant markets; however, it is essential 
that grading be practiced, and that none but sound 
fruit be shipped. Care should be taken in handling 
and packing, to avoid bruising or otherwise injuring 
the fruits. If the stems are not removed at the time 
of picking, they are likely to puncture the ripe speci¬ 
mens. The contents of each package should be uni¬ 
form as to size, smoothness and degree of ripeness. 
By packing two different grades, we can usually realize 
much more for our product than we can by putting 
all grades into one package, for a package sells for 
no more than the value of the poorest fruit it con¬ 
tains. In packing our tomatoes we use the four- 
basket crate, as it is the most desirable. It is- easily 
handled, displays its contents to good advantage and 
carries it without crushing. When properly packed 
with 10 good size tomatoes to a basket, it is indeed an 
attractive package. There are many varieties of toma¬ 
toes ;. and the purpose for which the crop is to be 
grown will be an important factor in- determining 
which variety it is best to plant. The market recog¬ 
nizes two brands: “Acme” and “Trophy.” All. smooth' 
purple-red tomatoes are known as “Acme,” regardless 
of the name on the package of seeds from which they 
were grown. The Imperial, Livingston; Beauty, 
Dwarf Champion and the Trucker’s Favorite are all' 
Acmes when they reach the market. In same manner, 
all bright red tomatoes, even though large and smooth 
are classed as “Trophies,” though this term applies 
with special force to bright red tomatoes that are more 
or less wrinkled; “Acmes” sell to much better ad¬ 
vantage than the Trophies. Therefore some of the 
exceedingly fine varieties,, such as Stone and Match¬ 
less, are not fit for shipment, on account of their color. 
It is true that some of the varieties classed as 
“Trophies” are earlier than most of the “Acmes,” and 
therefore usually bring better prices at the opening of 
the season, but as soon as the market is supplied with 
Acmes, there is very little demand for Trophies, and 
they sell at a very low price. For canning we grow 
a large, smooth, heavy-meated tomato, which is 
accepted/ C. A. u. 
Hammonton, N. J. 
Tomatoes as a Side Line. 
Our small acreage in fruits and the frequent recur¬ 
rence of damaging Spring frosts have compelled us to 
take up truck growing. Our experience shows that it 
is the more reliable and profitable industry of the 
two. The varieties of truck that we chose to graft 
on to horticulture were chiefly sweet corn, potatoes and 
tomatoes, and we chose them because we thought their 
culture presented no very technical difficulties and 
lent itself readily to our system of rotation. 
We have for a local market a town of 10,000 in¬ 
habitants, and* we sell most directly to the consumer. 
A few of the grocerymen offer cash; the others pay 
only in trade unless the supply be very short. A tenth 
of an acre was put in early kinds of tomatoes and 
yielded $40. Our plan has been to have a plot of the 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
extra earlier and’ another- for extra 1 late- ones that would, 
come- on after the main season crop had' 1 run. low, and 
command ready sales and’ good prices by reason of 
their superior size and beauty. For this late crop 
we chose the Ponderosa, as having the size, quality,, 
productiveness and vigor of growth. We sowed the 
seed in June and set the plants during the first of 
July. The plot had been in strawberries two years, 
and was turned as soon as the berries were all gone. 
Needless to say the soil was rich. It. was rich when 
the strawberries were planted, and had been twice top- 
dressed. When turned, it was full of organic matter, 
part humus and part undecomposed. The rows were 
100 yards long and nine in number; the plants were 
four feet apart each way,, making nearly 700 on about 
a fourth of an acre. As our supply of Ponderosa 
plants gave out, we were compelled to substitute some 
Stone, Matchless and Trucker's Favorite. 
About the time of planting there was a spell of 
rainy weather; before the middle of August the rains 
had stopped, and we have had none since, barring a 
sprinkle that just laid the dust. The plants were poorly 
set; it was dry just then and the ground was unsettled 
after the plowing, dusty and cloddy; some of them 
died, but in most cases the hills were finally reset. 
The outside row was staked for comparison; the 
others were left to sprawl over the ground, which 
they soon did effectually enough to put an end to 
cultivation long before it should have been discon¬ 
tinued. It is of interest to surmise just how much 
influence this enforced neglect had upon the yield and 
vigor of plants. 
September 5 we picked the first ripe tomatoes, and 
we continued picking daily or every other day up to 
the first of November, when a severe frost occurred. 
Some frosts had come before this, killing on the low¬ 
lands but harmless on our ridge. As usual the rot 
A PRIZE SfcLOfiT-HO&N. BULL. Fig. 29i 
made its appearance with the first ripe fruit, and 
continued to take a goodly tithe until tile very last; 
in all I should estimate its tax at near one-fifth the 
crop. Our early ones were still feebly producing 
when the late ones began to ripen,, and were selling 
at 50 cents per bushel.;, the- Ponderosa. stai’ted off at 
$1 and held that price throughout. The first week 
we picked about a bushel a day; tile second week, 
two bushels; the third, three bushels, and from- then 
on about three to four bushels- per day. A good many 
were sold in small baskets at 15 cents. All this time 
the market was filled with small tomatoes at 50 cents- 
or less, which the grocerymen preferred, refusing, 
except in one case, to buy our large ones. This is 
still inexplicable to me, for we found that all classes 
of people bought freely from the wagon. But I 
note here that if we had had to depend upon the 
middleman, the crop would have been unprofitable. 
Now a word as to the fruit. Figs. 30 and 32 will give 
an idea of the looks and yield of this gigantic and as 
we esteem it, very desirable variety. One among the 
largest weighed 1J4 pounds. Many must have tipped 
the scales at 1 T A, and the one-pound size were too 
common for comment in picking. The large tomatoes 
in the picture would have averaged' about 1J4 pound. 
I saw individual vines that were bearing as many as 
12 tomatoes at one time that would average a pound. 
Five and six of these large fruits would fill a 15- 
cent basket; some of them were rough and irregular 
in shape, but the bulk was above criticism although, 
judged on smoothness alone, they were not in the 
same class as the Stone. In beauty of color the Stone 
would have been deemed by many the superior, but 
we who did the picking needed no evidence but that 
of our own eyes to convince us that considering all 
points the Ponderosa was too far ahead to admit of 
rivalry by any of the others, and I will say that had 
all the plants been Ponderosa instead of about a 
fourth of the plants being different varieties, our 
safes total would have been considerably larger. Up 
to the date of the killing frost, November 1, we had 
January 23, 
sold 3U20 worth; foreseeing the frost we gathered 
about 20 bushels of unripe ones, sorting them into 
large ones to be laid 1 away to ripen up,, and into small 
ones to be sold green, a number of which we sold 
at 50 cents per bushel’ and some as low as 30 cents. 
At this rate I estimate the income of an acre as at 
least $500. The cost of setting and cultivating would 
be insignificant; the only important expense would be 
the cost of picking and marketing. One other most 
important point. It will be noted that this crop was 
grown practically without any rain or cultivation. 
What is the explanation ? My theory is the great quan¬ 
tity of organic matter in the soil acted as a sponge to 
absorb water and as a complete fertilizer whose 
progress toward decomposition kept pace with the in¬ 
creasing requirements of the vines, l. r. Johnson. 
Missouri. 
BIG CORN FOR SILAGE. 
Ross Bros. Co., when they ask for a discussion on 
the best corn for a silo, hit a very live subject. We 
have seen it discussed quite a little by the theorist 
and our agricultural professors, but little by the prac¬ 
tical men who feed it. At the time Bailey started his 
silo we were buying a few hundred dollars’ worth of 
stable manure each year, drawing it about five miles 
with teams. At the price of bran and cotton-seed meal 
at that time we felt we could make it cheaper. We 
built a larger barn, bought some swale land and 
started in to make butter. A we had neither clover 
nor English hay more than for our horses we fed as 
large a grain ration as we thought the cows could 
stand. As soon as we were certain corn could be 
kept green we built a silo and filled it each year 
until we devoted our time to the fruit business. We 
built a silo that was perfectly airtight, without which 
no one can have perfect silage. At that time every¬ 
one seemed to advocate large-growing varieties of 
corn. We used the Southern white, and had a large 
amount of forage, besides the best keeping silage we 
ever saw. A friend who put his in whole (and. these 
people all changed to cut or dropped the silo en¬ 
tirely),. said when looking at mine: “Your corn is 
as green and nice as whan first put in.” We had 
few ears on our corn at that time. We usually 
mixed cotton seed with our silage when feeding, a 
feed we much prefer to corn ears cut in the silage. 
One season we raised three acres of common field 
flint corn, and this was mixed with the large South¬ 
ern white, making a silage of much higher feeding 
value, but was the poorest as far as keeping quality 
was concerned we ever raised. Neither do we be¬ 
lieve we received as high a feeding value from the 
corn as if it had been husked. Whether the extra 
labor required to husk would have been returned we 
cannot say. But we do not believe it will pay the 
average farmer to raise grain to put in a silo. We 
know it did not pay ns. Our experience was, the 
quicker silage can be put in a silo- and covered as far 
as possible from the air the better. It would be in¬ 
teresting to know how much goodness it takes from 
the silage to heat it up good and hot. We once had 
the cutter break down when tw.o-thirds full from Fri¬ 
day forenoon to Monday morning, and we know the 
cows, did not like the silage from that spot, as well as 
from the rest of the silo. .Of all the nonsense published 
for our dairymen I know of none more rank than that 
he should raise all his grain or fodder he needs to 
use. The average dairyman makes of himself and 
family (and the hired man if he will stay), slaves 
of work more than most other callings, many of 
whom have at feast one day in the week for rest. 
The man who can turn the most, grain into milk or 
hutter at a profit is the best business dairyman. Why 
export cotton-seed meal, linseed, bran, etc., to for¬ 
eign farmers, and buy nitrate of soda to raise hay 
at home? Personally in a few years we greatly en¬ 
riched a small and rundown farm with the grain we 
bought and fed. We put in some good hard work, 
hut it paid just the same. We have in mind a man 
who put on cattle on a small place of 20 acres, made 
milk, bought lots of grain, all of which the cows paid 
for: sold the cows, sowed his land to grass and had 
made a clear profit of more than $100 per acre be¬ 
fore the land needed any attention at all, besides hay 
for his horses and paying him for the cost of man¬ 
aging it. h. o. MEAD. 
Massachusetts. 
After reading the article on big corn _ for silage 
by Ross Bros. Co. and others, I will give a little 
of my experience, having used silos for 25 years. 
When I commenced raising corn for silage, as far 
as I know around here it was mostly planted in 
drills, and was usually cut before it was mature, 
which gave a lot of feed that came the nearest to 
nothing of anything I know of. It was worse than 
trying to fool a cow with wheat bran. I planted 
that way just once; after the second year I com¬ 
menced rowing three feet each way, and continued to 
plant farther apart, until 12 years ago I commenced 
planting Virginia Ensilage or Eureka corn (they are 
the same). I planted this three, feet and 10 inches 
each way; I planted this variety 10 years, and 
should continue to plant the same, but our seasons 
are long enough for it to mature only about half 
the time. Last year I planted Learning, rowing 3)4 
feet each way, and shall plant the same this year. 
There is a greater proportion of grain to the ton 
in Learning than Eureka Ensilage, which is quite 
an item when meal is $35 a ton, against $13 12 
years ago. 
Bristol, Conn. 
s. D. N. 
