82 
HOUSE & GARDEN 
Vick's 
Garden 
and Floral 
Guide 
For 1916 For 67 years the leading au- 
TVT^-^ thority on Vegetable, Flower 
anc j Farm Seeds, Plants and 
ID Bulbs. Send for free copy 
rveaay —today 
JAMES VICK’S SONS, 
18 Stone St., Rochester, N. Y. 
EASTER GIFT BOX 
OF GLADIOLI 
Make this Easter one to be 
remembered by having our 
special Easter Gift Box of 
choice Gladioli bulbs sent to 
yourself and friends. 
A fine collection of fifteen carefully 
selected bulbs in an attractive box. 
Fifty cents post paid to any address 
Annie R. Blanchard 
17 Hillside Avenue, MELROSE, MASS. 
BYZANTINE 
FOUNTAINS 
also 
Attractive 
Bird Baths 
in Concrete 
From $10. up 
Jardinieres, Vases 
Window Boxes 
Garden Benches 
Fireplaces, Mantels 
P. SARTI&CO. 
113 E. 34th St., N.Y.City 
EVERYTHING FOR 
YARD AND ORCHARD 
H AVE you arranged to make 
your yard individual and 
attractive this spring? We will 
design it free, if desired, or you 
can order from our catalog for 
immediate attention. 
Our 800 acres of fruit and flowering 
trees, flowers, vines and shrubs, etc., 
offer a varied list that will please 
everyone. 60 years of satisfied cus¬ 
tomers have proven their quality. 
Write for catalog at once. 
H00PES, BRO. & THOMAS CO. 
Dept.K, West Chester, Pa. 
Efficiency Standards for the Tomato Patch 
(Continued from page 40) 
Dahlias 
THAT BLOSSOM 
Alexander’s Up-to-Date Dahlias Lead the World 
because they are beautiful 
in color, perfect in type and 
shape, and most important 
of all—Free Flowering. 
The Dahlia of to-day is 
of unsurpassed beauty as a 
single flower, exquisite for 
private gardens, charming 
in masses, and ideal for 
planting against 
shrubbery. 
Our many customers are 
satisfied; they receive 
good stock; true* to name, 
and best of all—Guar¬ 
anteed to Grow. 
All Flower Lovers are invited to s -nd to the ‘ Dahlia 
King" for his latest Free Illustrated Catalog, which 
contains helpful descriptions and valuable cultural hints 
on Dahlias, Gladiolus, Cannas, Peonies, Phlox, Iris, 
Hardy Plants for the Old-fashioned Garden, and a Gen¬ 
eral line of Ornamental and Flowering Shrubs. 
J. K. ALEXANDER 
425-435 Central St. E--*st Bridgwater, Mass. 
usually serve the purpose. If the 
setting of crown clusters proves un- 
I usually heavy later on, it pays to 
string an extra wire between the first 
and second lines, causing the first 
three wires to be 6" apart. This en¬ 
ables the grower to tie the heavy 
clusters to wires as well, a support 
often badly needed, especially with 
the larger fruited sorts. 
Under the wire trellis method of 
cultivation, plants are set 12" to 18" 
apart in the row, depending on how 
rich the soil is. The richer the 
ground, the closer together may the 
plants be set. When the plants have 
made sturdy upright bushes, say 2' 
high, with plenty of branches, then is 
the time to prune and tie. The 
plants are reduced to two of the 
strongest and most promising 
branches, and the branches nearest 
to the base of the original center 
stalk are always given the preference 
for the reason that they are the clos¬ 
est to the “source of supply.” In 
other words, plant foods travel 
quickest via the shortest route. Even 
if stouter branches farther up on the 
plant should claim your attention for 
preference, cut them out and give 
the “nearest home” branches the 
preference. 
Work Before Harvest 
From the time this initial work is 
done, to the first week in September, 
the patch should be gone over about 
once a week, oftener in fine grow¬ 
ing weather. Remove all side shoots 
or “suckers” which will appear at 
both the base of plant and the leaf 
joints. They all deprive the plant of 
energy needed most in the develop¬ 
ing of clusters, while the flowers 
which they bear develop into mar¬ 
ketable fruits only in rare cases 
during exceptionally long seasons. 
Beginning early in August, when the 
plants reach the uppermost line of 
wires, begin to prune the center of 
the main stalks as well, so as to 
throw the strength of the whole plant 
into the fruit already set. 
The individual stake method dif¬ 
fers from that just described by hav¬ 
ing the plants set 2)4' to 3' apart 
each way. A stout 5 VS stake is 
driven within 1" of base of plant as 
the time for the first training and 
pruning draws near. Then prune as 
directed above, hut where a plant has 
2)4' x 3' space in each direction, it 
will develop three branches just as 
well as two under the wire trellis 
method. Prune your individually 
staked plant to three branches, there¬ 
fore, and you may expect, on an 
average, three clusters of four fruits 
each on every one of the three 
branches, or a total of thirty-six 
fruits per plant. Of these thirty-six 
fruits, under careful cultivation and 
in favorable seasons, thirty-three 
should reach marketable size in due 
time, and quite a percentage should 
command premium prices, depending 
upon the time of maturity of the 
fruits. 
Before passing on to the choice of 
varieties, let me say a few words 
about cultivation. Early in the sea¬ 
son, hoe quite close to the young 
plants. In fact, it pays to keep the 
patch or field free from weeds all 
the time. But along in July, when 
the first clusters have developed and 
the plants have reached the top of 
their supports, keep farther away 
from the plants. The soil for a foot 
in each direction around the base 
of plants will be found literally un¬ 
dermined with fine feeding roots. To 
disturb these seriously by either 
I hand-hoeing or cultivator teeth, 
means to deprive the plant of a 
source of food supply badly needed 
just then to ripen early clusters and 
develop later ones. 
The Choice of Varieties 
When embarking in the business 
of growing tomatoes for either home 
use or market, ask yourself, “What 
do 1 want?” There are pink or 
purple sorts, bright reds or scarlets, 
yellow sorts and a large number of 
small-fruits kinds. The last two are 
of small value from a commercial 
standpoint. Yellow tomatoes are 
comparatively tasteless. So be sure 
to decide for what purpose you want 
the fruits, and then choose your sorts. 
Some markets pay a premium for 
purple fruits, others demand bright 
reds. All markets pay most for the 
extra early fruits, regardless of 
color. 
The foremost purple sorts may be 
divided into early, midseason and 
late. We now have perfectly smooth 
sorts of uniformly symmetrical 
shape in each division, although June 
Pink, the standard extra early, still 
shows a tendency to produce some 
rough-skinned fruits on the crown 
clusters. But since June Pink, to¬ 
gether with Earliest Pink, a strain 
of it in great favor in New Jersey, is 
absolutely in a class of its own for 
earliness, this deficiency may he over¬ 
looked. 
Closely following these two we 
have Livingston’s Globe, a great fa¬ 
vorite in the Middle West and the 
real standby of Southern growers for 
shipment to Northern markets. Sev¬ 
enty-five per cent of all tomatoes 
which reach us from Christmas to 
Easter are Globes grown in the 
South. This is a very handsome, 
almost globe-shaped sort of beauti¬ 
ful color and great solidity. It is 
firmly “fixed” in all its desirable 
characteristics and matures the bulk 
of its crop in from 120 to 130 days 
from date of sowing seeds. Under 
the individual stake method of cul¬ 
tivation, Globe furnishes surprising 
quantities of fruit of highest char¬ 
acter. It is now grown successfully 
from Florida to central New York 
and from Massachusetts to Missouri. 
Truckers’ Favorite is, perhaps, the 
best known pink main crop sort, ex¬ 
cepting Ponderosa, which takes the 
prize for producing extra large fruit. 
But the tendencies of late have been 
away from the mammoth kinds. It 
is an established fact that the waste 
in connection with some of the extra 
large sorts is enormous. But Pon¬ 
derosa is, perhaps, in a class of its 
own for solidity and flavor. 
Sparks Earliana, already mentioned 
as being the favorite in Eastern mar¬ 
kets, is the bright red standard for 
earliness throughout the country. Like 
its brother, June Pink, among the 
purple sorts, it has a distinctly lacin- 
iated foliage, which gives the sun¬ 
beams free access to the fruits. As a 
result, they ripen while those of 
later sorts, with heavier foliage, are 
still small and green. 
Bonny Best is one of the newer 
bright red sorts that have won the 
approval of growers throughout the 
country in an incredibly short time. 
It is within a week of being as early 
as Sparks Earliana in outdoor trials, 
and far surpasses that sort in sym¬ 
metrical shape and smoothness. A 
large percentage of the fruits show a 
decided tendency to be round. All 
are thick through, averaging 2)4" x 
3" in diameter, and this uniform 
size is maintained throughout. 
Rivaling Bonny Best in beauty, and 
(Continued on page 84) 
Corbin Builders’Hardware 
Outlasts the building on which 
it is used and gives satisfactory 
service every moment of the 
time. 
Ask your hardware dealer. 
PLANT KING’S HARDY 
OLD FASHIONED Flowers 
The old favorites — Colum¬ 
bine, Larkspur, Hollyhocks, 
Foxgloves, Sweet Williams, 
Phlox and many others; 
planted once, they come up 
each year and increase in size 
and beauty. Write for special 
offers and beautifully illus¬ 
trated catalog, describing more 
than 170 varieties. It’s FREE. 
W. E. KING, Box 327, Little Silver, N.J. 
GLADIOLI 
THE FLOWER BEAUTIFUL 
B LOOMS from July to Novem¬ 
ber. Get this collection of 
choice bulbs for your garden. 
40 America, large flowers. Color: 
soft lavender-pink. 
30 Mrs. Frances King, large flow¬ 
ers. Flame-pink. 
10 Baron Hulot, deep, rich violet- 
blue. 
10 Niagara, primrose yellow, pen¬ 
cilled carmine. 
10 Glory of Holland, many flow¬ 
ers. Pure white with lavender 
anthers. All for $2, delivered. 
Half collection for $1.15. 
ASTERDAH GARDENS, 201 SlambaughBldg., Youngstown, Ohio 
STANDARD 
Underground 
Garbage Receiver 
In Use 12 Years 
LOOK FOR OUR TRADE MARK 
Sold Direct Factory Send for Circular 
C. H. STEPHENSON, Mfr. 
20 Farrar St., Lynn, Mass. 
If If COMMERCIAL 
"dmus 
FOR YOUR LAWNS AND GARDENS 
" BETTER THAN THE BEST 
Ten 100* Bags For^S 00 
COMMERCIAL HUMUSCO., 
Firemans Bldg- 
111 Jill NEWARK,N.J. 
Send For Descristtve Literature 
REMEMBER THE NAME — COMMERCIAL HUMUS 
