The daily morning journal and courier., 1900-05-21
ONE WAY TO GROW TOMATOES.

A M6IDOQ or 6uD-ITrlSdtiOH IHal Iio-
 duces Great Results.
 When Dr. Jabez Fisher, of Fitchburg, announced that he had discovered that tomatoes could be best grown by con- stant and thorough sub-irrigation, the farmers who have raised them in other ways for years shook their heads and said they guessed the doctor was mis- taken--only that isn't the exact word they used.
 But he never intended to raise them in a hot-house with sub-irrigation, and he gets fifteen cents more pound for them than any ather tomatoes on the Boston market Dr. Fisher, as his title implies received his M. D., and some years ago started out to praceice medi- cine. but he soon wearied of his profess sion, and found himself out of sympa- thy with many of it's teachings and doc trines. Always interested in the care and culture of growing things his sci entiflcally trained mind found in the realm of plant life field for research which he saw might be as exhaustive and valuable in it's way as any of the problems of the human body.
 Four years ago he built on his place, two miles from Fitchburg, hothouse one hundred and eight feet long and |, eighteen and one-half feet wide. He has experimented and evolved his theo- ries of fertilizer, and most of all been happy in the work under his hand. | He says that he adopted his present method of raising tomatoes partly by accident and partly by working out his theories to their logical conclusion. l For four years now he has been sending l them to market raised by this method, which is, to say the least, revolutionary. The aim of all irrigation is to give the plants water when they need it. It is 1 the ability to do this that makes the | Arkansas valley apples raised in Man zanola and other points, for instance. so perfect in flavor and appearance. They are given water when they need it. In l this country the apple may become ''set'' on the tree and begin to develop, and the orchardist have to wait for 1 days for shower to give his thirsty trees a very necessary drink. There the orchardist turns on his water when the apple is set and the result is fair, perfect apple. This, then, is the great advantage of raising fruit commercial | ly with irrigation In the irrigating Of trees a furrow is turned alongside the | tree about under the ends of the branches Down this the water is run | for varying lengths of time and then turned off The water sinks into the roots, which drink 1t up into the tree. Tomatoes raised by the acre in that country in the open are irrigated in the same way, but with more frequency, Of course than apples. The tomato Is vegetable that requires great deal of moisture, a large per cent. of Its sub stance being water. Dr. Fisher came to | the conclusion that the tomato not only needs a very frequent drink, but needs perpetual one. So he went to work on that plan.
 About November he plants in three inch pot single tomato seed. 1mme- diately the pot Is set in pan having water in it. The soil is a prepared one and is enriched with chemical fertili- ger which the doctor has perfected and has made for him according to his own formula. To digress for moment, he used to use different fertilizers for dif- ferent plants, but now he uses the same fertilizer for all plants and all soils The soil he disregards to some extent, holding that the food should be such as goes into the making of the plant and not into the soil itself.
 The usual method of raising tomato plants from the seed Is to SOW the seed in a cold frame or forcing box, and, when the plants are big enough to ''prick them out" which is simply sepa- ating and setting them by themselves The doctors method obviates this tedi- ous and delicate operation. Each plant has it's own home in the three-inch pot. and there it stays and grows till 1t is about five weeks old. Then 1t is set in the final soil where it is to grow to ma- turity and fruit, without transplanting or handling. At all times it Is still standing in it's pan of water and drink ing constantly.
 The receptacle where it finally grows is a bottomless iron box about six inch- es deep and with about four inches of soil in it. Three plants are set in each box or frame. The end plants are set twenty-one inches from the center plant. This frame is then set into a shallow tray of water and, having no Ebottom, the soil and the fibrous roots,
 
 which soon penetrate through to the bottom, suck up the water to the plant constantly From then till the fruit is gathered and the plant is through blos- somng the water is never allowed to remain out of the pans. In other words, not drop of water ever goes on to the furface of the soil which supports the tomatoes but 1t is constantly being supplied as the plant itself demands it, to the roots.
 The luxuriousness of the plants and the health of their foliage is testimo- ny to the success of the method. While pr. Fisher raises primarily for the in- terest he takes in the proposition from a scientific standpoint, he finds that his one hundred and eight feet of glass brings him in a handsome little sum -------