1913. 
lS *y 'O' 
THE RURAL, NEW-YORKER 
386 
&»' . F * » .'■* •- —* 
Ruralisms 
Calceolaria; Abutilon; Primrose; Fuchsia. 
L. E. H., Avon, 0. —Can you give me 
some directions for raising the following 
plants from seeds for the Summer garden : 
1. Calceolarias. 2. Abutilons. 3. English 
primrose? When should seed be sown? 
What location and treatment do plants 
need after setting out doors? We have no 
hotbeds for starting plants.. 4. How can 
Fuchsia be induced to blossom indoors? 
Our house is lighted and heated with gas 
(hot-water furnace). Plant looks thrifty 
and grows very rapidly ; was full of buds 
when brought in, but all dropped off and 
no more appear. It is a large one. Should 
it be taken from the pot when set out in 
the garden this Summer? 
Ans. —1* The shrubby Calceolarias so 
extensively used in Europe for window 
boxes and bedding are not largely 
grown here, as our hot Summers are 
very unfavorable to them. We see a 
few in the Spring used in mixed window 
boxes, but their beauty is soon over. 
They are chiefly propagated by cuttings 
and wintered over in frost-proof frames. 
The hybrid Calcelorias are very striking 
and handsome greenhouse plants, which 
the inquirer will find quite troublesome 
without glass protection, though a very 
modest little greenhouse will carry them 
well. Sow in June in pans or shallow 
boxes, in fine soil composed equally of 
leaf mold, sod and sand. Scatter seed 
on surface, press in with smooth board, 
spray well, and cover with a pane of 
glass; set in a light window. When 
the little plants are well started, remove 
the glass gradually. When the seed¬ 
lings are tiny, water by standing pan in 
water long enough to moisten soil, but 
no longer; the little plants damp off 
easily. When they make two or three 
leaves, prick off into another pan one 
inch apart; when they crowd pot into 
thumb pots, adding one-sixth pulverized 
cow manure to the soil. Always give 
good drainage, and continue to shift 
until they reach seven-inch pots, in which 
they flower. A frame with a northern 
aspect is good during Summer, for they 
must be kept cool and partly shaded. 
When they come indoors their tempera¬ 
ture range is from 40° to 50°. Weak 
manure water is helpful when flowers 
begin to show. Careful watering is al¬ 
ways needed. They are not bedding or 
garden plants. 
2. Abutilons are usually propagated by 
cuttings, but are easily grown from seed, 
germinating at almost any season, but 
from March to May is desirable. Sow 
in about the same way as the Calceo¬ 
larias, sifting a little soil over seeds, 
but on in June, when the little plants 
are making a good growth, they may be 
set out in the garden in a warm con¬ 
genial situation. Of course they must 
be brought indoors before frost. Good 
drainage is always required. 
3. English primroses suffer from our 
hot Summers, and have been disappoint¬ 
ing in our own garden, but in a con¬ 
genial situation they give charming re¬ 
sults. They require deep moist light 
soil, with partial shade, and a slight 
mulch of hay or dry leaves in Winter. 
Sow in March or April in shallow boxes 
of light sandy soil, pricking out when 
large enough into other boxes, and set 
outside when large enough. Water very 
carefully; they damp off quite easily. 
Sometimes they do not germinate very 
freely in the Spring, better results being 
obtained from freshly gathered seed, 
which may be sown in suitable places in 
the open ground in July or August, or 
in boxes in September, the boxes being 
carried over Winter in cold frames. 
3. It is quite possible that escaping 
gas caused the Fuchsia buds to drop, as 
this is a common cause of the trouble. 
The plants bloom best if the roots are 
rather confined, and if it was repotted 
just before being brought in it may be 
in too large a pot, which would induce 
free growth with scanty bloom. Re¬ 
potting in this way might also cause 
dropping of the buds. The plant will 
flower best if left in the pot, which 
should be plunged in the ground, with 
coal ashes in the bottom of the hole to 
prevent entrance of worms. When in 
bud or bloom frequent doses of liquid 
manure are excellent. However, it does 
not bloom all the year round, and if 
you are getting few flowers now it 
should bloom abundantly in the Sum¬ 
mer. Old plants for conservatory deco¬ 
ration are cut back quite severely, the 
young shoots giving abundant bloom. 
Plum Tomatoes. 
F. W. B., Poughkeepsie, N. Y .— Where did 
the little yellow plum tomato originate and 
how many varieties are there of it? By 
what name is it classed botanically? Is it 
grown anywhere in any part of the coun¬ 
try to any extent, and if so, what are its 
special uses? This tomato that I have ref¬ 
erence to is about the size of a medium 
plum and is oblong in shape and medium 
to dark yellow in color when overripe, 1 
have eaten preserves made from this tomato 
that surpass many of those made from our 
more popular fruits. 
Ans. —The plum tomato is one of the 
very oldest cultivated types, being but 
a step beyond the wild form of cherry¬ 
shaped tomato still found growing 
throughout Central South America. It 
was probably brought to Southern Eu¬ 
rope along with other primitive toma¬ 
toes soon after the conquest of Peru 
by Pizarro. The first hint we get of 
this type is in 1625, when Bauhin fig¬ 
ured the cherry tomato and mentioned 
plum and fig-shaped forms. These were 
all of the primitive two-celled type, 
which persists to this day. The early 
tomatoes were thought to be rather 
poisonous, or at least inedible, and were 
grown solely for ornament under the 
name of “love apple” or its equivalent 
in other languages. In 1805 Dunal fig¬ 
ured the pear tomato in its red and yel¬ 
low forms, and soon after the tomato 
began to be appreciated as a useful 
fruit or vegetable. Under critical cul¬ 
tivation varieties have increased until 
the present high state of perfection has 
been achieved. The small-fruited kinds, 
such as the cherry, plum, pear, apple 
and peach tomatoes, each in its red and 
yellow varieties, still hold their own for 
preserving and pickling, while the large, 
many-cellcd, solid-fleshed forms find 
their greatest utility in canning, cooking 
and in the make-up of salads. The 
plum and pear tomatoes are only grown 
in quantity for pickling establishments, 
but are everywhere cultivated through¬ 
out the South as garden plants for 
household use. The yellow forms are 
usually preferred to the red, as they 
are thought to have firmer flesh and a 
more fruity flavor, certainly having less 
of the distinctive musky acidity char¬ 
acteristic of the large red sorts. They 
blend well with sugar in the preserving 
process and may be cured into very 
palatable dried “figs,” the pear-shaped 
ones being naturally preferred for this 
purpose. The proper botanical name 
for this type of tomato, according to the 
latest authorities, appears to be Lycoper- 
sicum esculentum var. pyriforme. The 
cherry-shaped ones are classified as var. 
cerasi forme, and the apple and peach¬ 
like kinds as var. vttlgare. 
The little currant tomato, having 
fruits in long racemes, belongs to a 
quite distinct species, Lycopersicum 
pimpinellitolium. It is rarely grown 
except for ornament, but some very at¬ 
tractive hybrids of really high quality 
have lately been produced between it 
and the large garden sorts. The plum 
and pear tomatoes are among the most 
vigorous and hardy of their kind. Dor¬ 
mant seeds bear hard freezing, and it is 
not unusual to find plants vigorously 
growing about garbage heaps and in 
waste places where the fruits have been 
thrown the previous year. If volunteer 
tomato plants appear after a hard Win¬ 
ter it is quite in order to find them 
bearing the familiar yellow plums and 
figs rather than the more highly de¬ 
veloped garden types of fruit. . v. 
Raising a Big Pumpkin. 
J. M., Stockhndgc, Mass .— What Is the 
variety of pumpkin that will attain the 
greatest size, size alono being considered, 
and how to attain it? 
Ans. —Probably the largest variety of 
pumpkin in cultivation is what is known 
as Large Tours or Mammoth; this va¬ 
riety will sometimes grow to the enor¬ 
mous weight of 200 pounds or more, 
with proper soil, care and cultivation. 
The best soil for this crop is a sandy 
loam, and if large specimens are de¬ 
sired, not less than a large wheelbarrow 
of well-rotted manure should be used 
to each hill, well mixed with the soil 
in hills four to five feet in diameter and 
10 feet apart each way. To obtain 
strong vines they should be pinched 
back somewhat, and do not leave more 
than one or two at most on the vines; 
when the pumpkins are about half 
grown, the vines should be fed with 
liquid cow manure once each week un¬ 
til they mature. To make the liquid 
manure put about one bushel of fresh 
cow manure in a gunny sack and sus¬ 
pend it in a barrel of water. The ma¬ 
nure should be removed occasionally, 
as each time the barrel is emptied and 
refilled the manure is becoming less 
potent as a fertilizer. k. 
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