American Agriculturist, March 1, 1924 
209 
A Living From My Garden 
Everything From Hotbeds to Late Tomatoes 
W HEN I made up my mind I wanted a hot¬ 
bed, I had no idea how it was to be made, 
except that it consisted of a frame with a 
sash over it. I got some books and sent 
for some government bulletins. The books and bulletins 
told me to put eighteen inches of horse manure in the 
bottom of the bed. No one emphasized the 
fact that the manure must be fresh manure. 
The first bed I made would not heat be¬ 
cause the manure was too old. I dug it all 
out and tried it over again with perfectly 
fresh manure. My hotbed soon got hot 
enough. The place I had was exposed a 
good deal to the wind, and I soon found 
that: eighteen inches of manure did not 
keep the bed hot long enough, if I made 
the bed early in February. I put in two 
feet, two and a half feet, and finally three 
feet. I sooh discovered the more the better 
if it was tramped down solid enough. 
One of my beds was a failure because 
the water got in. The ground was a com¬ 
pact clay and I remedied the matter by 
putting in drain tile that would carry off 
any water that might get in. Where the 
subsoil is sand or gravel the tile is not 
necessary. If I made a mistake I lost 
money and that put me to thinking. 
I kept on starting my hotbeds earlier 
every year until I started the first one in 
January. There came a big snow-storm 
when the plants were well up. As the 
storm approached I put on the mats and 
covered the entire bed and heaped it 
around with sheaves of corn fodder and left 
the bed alone for three days—as long as 
the storm lasted. I was uneasy about mold, 
but when the sun began to shine again I 
raked off the snow and removed the cover¬ 
ing. The plants were all right. I had heated 
the beds all around with earth, but where 
the sash was laid on there would be some¬ 
times a small crack between the sash and 
the place where it rested. One morning 
when I took the covering off the bed there 
was a small path through one of them about 
two inches wide. Every plant in the path 
was frozen. After that I looked out for 
cracks in cold weather. I had some trouble 
with little grayish, blackish lice at first, for 
I did not know then that tobacco water or 
tobacco dust would control them. 
Mornings and evenings and sometimes 
noon found me at those hotbeds. They 
took care. If the sun began to shine the 
sash had to be raised and the bed ventilated. 
The temperature inside the hotbed, under 
sunshine, will jump ten degrees in a jiffy. 
I had to learn how to water them too. If 
I watered too much the plants would grow 
up slender and fall over—damp down. The 
more I worked with them the better I liked 
them, until I began to imagine those baby 
plants could hear me coming. When those 
little brown seeds began to germinate, I felt as 
if I was present at the beginning of Creation. 
If you want to raise early vegetable 
plants and flowers in a small way, a hotbed 
is much cheaper to install than a small 
greenhouse. After the horse manure is 
properly placed it will heat itself until the 
heat is no longer needed. There is not 
better recreation for a man who works 
indoors or outdoors either. Every hour at 
the hotbed I found interesting. I have 
known men to neglect their business to 
to play billiards. A billiard ball would 
have to shine a good deal more than it does 
before I would neglect a hotbed for it. 
to transplant, the tomato plant will be as thick as my 
finger and eight to ten inches tall with a blossom on 
the end. I soak the ground in the can and slip out the 
plant, dirt and all, and transplant it that way, and it 
hardly knows it has been set out. The first blossom will 
fall off but another takes its place almost immediately. 
Early and Late Tomatoes 
W HEN I want early tomatoes, I use 
Earliana or June Pink or Bonny 
Best. I start the plants in January. I put 
three feet of horse manure in the hotbed 
and tramp it down solid. At night I cover 
the hotbed with a heavy mat made out of 
an old piece of carpet. When the plants 
are about three inches high, I melt the 
top off of an old tomato can or any old can, 
and punch two or three holes in the bottom, 
and after filling the can set in the plant, 
replacing it in the hotbed. 
By the time the weather is warm enough 
If you believe in tax reduction sign the 'petition below, get your neighbor 
to sign it, and send it IMMEDIATELY to American Agriculturist, 
461 Fourth Avenue, New York City, 
TO THE GOVERNOR, THE LEGIS¬ 
LATURE, AND TO EVERY OTHER 
PUBLIC OFFICIAL IN STATE, 
COUNTY AND TOWN GOVERN¬ 
MENT IN NEW YORK, PENNSYL¬ 
VANIA AND NEW JERSEY. 
WHEREAS, first, taxation has increased in this 
nation more than four times since 1913, and in our 
State and local governments more than three and a half 
times, and 
WHEREAS, second, this burden of taxation, par¬ 
ticularly for State and local governments, falls heaviest 
and directly on farmers and farm property, amounting 
to 16.6% of the farmer’s income in 1922, stopping agri¬ 
cultural prosperity and fast becoming absolutely 
insupportable, and 
WHEREAS, third, the general basis of taxation is 
INCOME and not PROPERTY, and 
WHEREAS, fourth, our national, State and local 
governments have made little real progress in cutting 
out unnecessary officers, government departments and 
appropriation bills since the end of the World War, 
therefore be it hereby 
RESOLVED: First, that we, the undersigned, are 
unalterably OPPOSED TO THE EXTENSION AT PRES¬ 
ENT OF ALL NATIONAL, STATE AND LOCAL GOV¬ 
ERNMENT ACTIVITIES. 
I have taken ripe tomatoes from my garden as early 
as the seventeenth day of July, while the grocery man 
was charging twenty cents per pound for them. 
I sow the seed for my main crop early in February. 
HI want extra fine tomatoes, I prune the vines, and as 
they begin to ripen I remove some of the lower leaves. 
At the axil of every leaf stem a “sucker” 
will start. I break it out and tie the main 
stem to a stake ten or twelve feet high. 
There is neither tax nor rent on sky and 
sunlight and the higher the vines grow the 
finer are the tomatoes. I usually set two 
plants to a stake, an early and a late 
variety, the blossoms cross pollenize and 
that seems to make the tomatoes all the 
finer. I have made the rows as close as 
three feet and the stakes in the row as close 
as two feet, and set a row of cabbage in 
between, and I had tomatoes and cabbage 
of the best kind, by using heavy mulch on 
top of the ground. 
For late tomatoes I sow the seed in the 
open ground about the middle of May. 
This year I made a seed bed against the 
East side of the house. The plants had 
two frosts and some of them were killed 
but plenty were left for myself and my 
neighbors. Some of the plants I left in the 
bed and staked them up. They have 
grown beyond the end of the stake and I 
am tying them to the clothesline. Usually 
I set these plants out when they are about 
six inches high, mulch them, and let them 
grow in their own way. By the time the 
frost comes the tomatoes will be white at 
the blossom end. I pull up the vine care¬ 
fully with the tomatoes. Some of the 
biggest ones I pull off and lay in the hot¬ 
bed blossom end up and put on the sash. 
The others I hang up, vine and all, in my 
cellar. The tomatoes will ripen on the 
vine there if the cellar is not too damp and 
has a temperature between fifty and sixty 
degrees. In this way I have ripe tomatoes 
nice and fresh for Thanksgiving, Christmas 
and New Year’s. I picked off the last ripe 
one on the seventeenth day of January. 
I find the Ponderosa Tomato the best one 
for hanging up in the cellar for the reason 
that they will not drop off the vines as 
easily as most other varieties. 
Second, that all of our national and local officers 
should give immediate attention to THE GRAVE 
NECESSITY OF LARGE REDUCTIONS IN ALL GOV¬ 
ERNMENT EXPENDITURES, to the reduction of 
government personnel, to combining and simplifying 
government departments and activities, to the need of 
short legislative sessions, to smaller expense accounts 
for public officials, to passing fewer laws, and in short, 
to the necessity for practicing the same economy in 
public affairs that farmers are constantly obliged to 
practice in the production of the necessities of life. 
Third, that we as farmers are not interested in 
credit or any other unsound farm relief legislation, 
BUT IN TAX REDUCTION. 
Fourth, that taxation, both State and national, be 
maintained on all luxuries, as for example, chewing 
gum, tobacco, motion pictures, etc. 
Fifth, that tax reduction be made TO ABOLISH 
DIRECT PROPERTY TAX. A REDUCTION OF IN¬ 
COME TAXES IS NOT SATISFACTORY. The farmers 
income is from his property holdings and therefore his 
assessed valuation, particularly on paper, is high. 
The reduction of income taxes, while government ex¬ 
penditures are still so high, will inevitably result in 
greater taxes on property, chiefly FARM REAL ESTATE. 
Signed eventually by 100,000 farmers. 
Name (write plainly) 
Address. 
(Paste blank paper to this petition for additional names.) 
Egg Plant, Endive, Turnips and 
Rhubarb 
A FTER the first frost I gathered the 
-UA. egg plant, wrapped them in paper 
and placed them in a potato crate and put 
them in the cellar. They kept there till 
Christmas. When it was too cold for 
endive to remain out of doors, I tied it up 
in the usual way, packed it rather loose in 
a crate and put it beside the egg plant. 
In a few weeks it blanched and kept for me 
there till the Holidays. I made a garden 
bed in one corner of the cellar about six 
feet square, with soil about four inches 
deep. In this bed I set out endive that was 
fully grown, watered the roots carefully 
but not the tops. Then I covered the 
endive with newspaper; it started to grow 
and blanched beautifully. It kept nice 
and fresh as long as there was any of it. 
When the endive was gone I set turnips in 
the ground and after they began to sprout, 
I covered them with the newspaper. The 
tops blanched as they grew and they were 
as good as the endive. 
I dug some rhubarb roots out of my 
garden with quite a bit of soil sticking to 
them. I laid them outside until the ground 
around the roots froze. Then I put them 
in my cellar and covered them deep in 
sand. The rhubarb began to grow and put 
forth long stems, but the leaf at the end of 
the stem did not develop. In February I 
had Rhubarb; it was very tender and quite 
good, but not very solid. 
Celery 
T HE first time I tasted celery, I didn't 
like it. It was tough and stringy and 
brackish in flavor. I raised some in my 
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