The Somerset reporter., 1898-11-10
TOMATO CULTURE.
Fresh and Interesting Items In Regard
to Producing Fine Fruit.

to Producing Fine Fruit
The tomato is a plant that we'll re-
pays little extra care and attention.
A writer in Ohio Farmer, who thor
oughly believes in stalking, training,
ted, says: If the vines are trained upon
stakes, they will not only yield larger
and better tomatoes, but they are less
liable to become defective before matur-
ing. When the vines are properly train
ed upon stakes, the work of picking the
fruit is simplified, and If they are only
trained ON sort of trellis along the
rows one can walk between the hills
and gather quite easily. In this way
the gardener can also watch the condi.
tion of the vines more readily and eX
perience less difficulty in keeping grubs
and worms away. Thus it can be seen
that stalking is far superior to the old
method in every respect, and when done
in time the work is comparatively easy.
Having grown both, l find that the
tomato vine is similar to the hop vine
in regard to the use of the same ground
every year. The longer either of them
is raised on one kind of soil and in the
same spot with good care the better it
seems to thrive. This is something
it might not work in all cases, since the
same plants pften present striking diff
ferences even when grown on soils only
q few rods apart.
first select ground suitable for the
purpose-such as can be employed year
after year without any danger of inter
ference for other uses--and then, at an
interval of about every ten feet, | drive
strong stakes into the soil, arranging
them in long rows 3 y feet apart. Along
these rows the tomatoes are planted in
hills, and as the vines commence to
spread stout Irvine is run on nails from
one stake to another, similar to wire on
posts in the construction of fence. On
this Irvine the tomato vines are then
trained, much in the same way that
grapes are trained on trellis. Thus
arranged, the rays of the sun experience
little or no difficulty in reaching all the
tomatoes, and in consequence nearly
due order, a thing that could not occur
were the vines left to sprawl upon the
ground. New tomatoes will keep COM
ing on vines trained in this way much
longer than they otherwise would, af-
fording thereby just as many green ones
in autumn for picklings as if only a
small amount of ripe fruit had been re-
allied during the entire season.
Should a drought come on at any time
during the summer, as there often does,
the tomato hills ought to be watered
properly, and all branches beginning TO
die pruned off so that no further vitality
of the plant will be absorbed by them. In
dealing thus with the vines they will
keep green continually, and also pro-
duce fruit which commands ready sale
in any market and is grace to any ia
BILE. | consider it proper to prune con-
siderably, and especially if large, fine
tomatoes are to be produced. Pruning
the vines will make them stocky, and
for this reason the vitality of the plants
will go into a less number of tomatoes.
Therefore, if large fruit is desired, adj
vantages can be derived by pruning
heavily, but for general field culture
there should be only little pruning
and sometimes almost none at all. The
fact is, an ordinary plant properly
trained will usually produce tomatoes
plenty large enough for market with
out great deal of pruning further
than cutting off dead branches and
where the vines happened to be too
thick.