Los Angeles herald., 1892-02-14
Typical Facts About CalifOr-
MIA Farms.
Money in Raising and Shipping
Tomatoes.
SOhething About How to Raise Corn
Successfully.
Thl Tomato Tree-Large Profits in Beet
Raising-The Purple Scale.
The Tehachapi Grain
Fields.

pas two or three years in raising and
shipping tomatoes, says the Pomona
Progress, and the industry seems to be
groFing. We have been asked several
timks why tomatoes and other vegeta-
blei are not raised more extensively in
Pomona for shipment to eastern mar
ket. One reason doubtless is that
fruit growing in this valley pays so we'll
and offers such agreeable employment
thai little attention has been paid to
other lines of agriculture, especially to
gardening. There are lands, however,
in this valley that are pre-eminently
suited to the production of tomatoes
and other vegetables, and for those VINO
arecontent to wait for fruit orchard
to trow and come into bearing, or others
WHIP would like to add tomato culture to
their other employments, we print the
following from Meehan's Monthly
it has been noted that where tomatoes
can be- raised on trellises, or some other
support from the ground, nearly double
the quantity can be raised from an acre
than where they are suffered to trail on
the ground. Rain and unfavorable
weather especially, is a great drawback
to this trailing method of production.
1t does not seem to be generally known
that one of the best trellises of the to-
mato plant is a comparatively short
straight stick, with short snags or spurs
up and down it, A smooth, straight
stick will not permit the vines to be
held up without slipping. Wherever
these heavy rough sticks can be easily
obtained, they will be found to add
enormously to the value of the crop.
Those, however, who have little in
genuity could use small sticks. by first
wrapping the tying material once
around the stick before tying up
the vines this prevents the tying
material from slipping down.
Another advantage of this method of ty-
ing to straight stems is the advantage
which it gives the plant for light in
every direction; and again, another ad-
vantage is afforded by a much longer
period for the cultivation of the soil,
more than can be done when the plants
are left to trail on the ground. We
have known as much as bushel of to-
matoes to be obtained from single
plant, in good rich soil, that had been
trained in this way to upright sticks.
The sticks should be planted before the
plants are set out, so that they can be
set firmly in the ground without de-
stroying the plant; just, in fact, as we
do with the Lima bean. We feel sure
that those cultivators who desire to be
in advance in making money out of
their market gardens would derive great
profit from attention to the suggestion
herein made.
SWEET CORN.
A correspondent of the Ventura Free
press says: In raising corn, like every
thing else, there is always room for i'm
provement. The question is how to do
it. My plan is, first to begin with the
best. If the ears are short, take the
"eight-rowed" yellow corn (long cared
kindly and mix with the sweet. In the
fall pick out some of the longest ears of
yellow corn having kernels of the sweet
on them. Pick off these and plant
find that the length of your ear is
much improved. The above rule al
ways holds good, provided you have se-
lected the long cared kind to start with.
To increase the number of rows on the
cob cross with any kind of corn having
large number of rows. If the corn
used for crossing" is later than the
sweet corn, then plant it week or two
before you do the sweet, according to
the difference in time of ripening, put
ting the sweet corn in every hill after
wards. To make the corn earlier, pick
off the ears as soon, or just before, they
begin to 'glaze," and strip up the husks
and hang in the shade. A handful of
wood ashes in each hill is of great
benefit.
THE TOMATO TREE.
A correspondent of the Ventura Free
Press has this to say about the tomato
tree:
The tree is indigenous to Jamaica and
the West Indies, and is OF comparatively
recent origin. 1t is essentially tropical
plant, and can be affected by frosts and
winds. 1t is rapid in growth, bearing
within eighteen months from seed plant
ing. 1t is like the banana, lemon and
orange. 1t affords fruit at time when
no other save the orange is in market. 1t
will grow and bear in any soil and at an
elevation. 1t produces fruit every month
in the year. 1t is sub-acid. Picked
green it makes an excellent pickle ;
stewed it makes good substitute for the
apricot, though the tomato you can have
fresh at any time of the year. Itmay be
eaten as vegetable, or fresh plucked
from the tree. There are some fruits when
thoroughly ripe that have more of the
acid, and when eaten by children have
enough of the salt to act as an aperient.
The fruit when young is of a pale green
color, changing as 1t grows older to q
purple, and when folly ripe 1t is the
shape and size of hens egg and of a
bright orange. Apart from its value as
a fruit bearer it makes handsome
ornamental tree, being an evergreen,
having large, fg-like leaves. 1t attains
the height of about fifteen feet and is
quite bushy.
Being such valuable tree it should
be extensively grown in this valley.
The writer, who has been acquainted
with the tree for years, was recently at
Mrs. Shepherds gardens in Ventura,
and came across one of the tomato
! trees at the present time having flowers,