The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1902-04-11
Soil For Rnlbs.

Cured or dried cow chips, broken
into bits, make the basis of the very
best soil for bulbs, whether bedded in
the open or grown in pots. After the
litter from the cow stalls is in place,
mix with it in the black loan and
half decayed leaves from the forest
or from under strawberries, vines or
trees. Old logs turned over, old stumps
knocked away. and the line Of old
fences, furnish splendid vegetable
loan, rich in the phosphates Mix it
with the cow chips, and have silver
sand to put directly under the bulbs,
and the soil will be ideal This COM
post is rich and warm, life giving and
yitaliaing, but light and porous.
The mulch over beds or borders OF
bulbs, as well as over pots and boxes
is one of the finest auxiliarles of the
soil. Cow chips crumbed fine, forest
leaves and chip dirt make good
mulches. Leaves are likely to blow
about in heaps unless weighed down
by chip dirt or cow stall litter. Cedar
and pine needles are fine for mulch
ing. They lie fiat and are not dis
turbed by the wind. The black loan
under pine needles is fine, also, for
mulching. Out of door mulches ought
to be several inches deep. Upheavals
are common in weather that freezes
and thaws alternately. When these
upheavals occur, a mulch prevents
destruction to the bulbs. A rich mulch
not only protects the bulbs by regu-
lating the fluctuations of the weather,
in its effects upon the bulbs, but helps
the soil, as all it's fertility washes
down into the soil that covers the
bulbs.-Agricultural Epitomist.
Midway Method of Growing Tomatoes.
AS a grower Of tomatoes for thirty
years, l do not hesitate to say that
until one has grown an acre or two
after the midway method he does not
suspect the possibilities Of his plant.
The plat for tomatoes, whether large
or small, is checked off three by three
feet, and stake firmly driven in ut
each check. The seeds are sown in
well-made cold frames about six
weeks before the plants are wanted
for setting out in the open ground.
When the time arrives, three we'll
grown, stocky plants are set around
each stake in triangle 12x12x12
inches. Before the plants are set the
soil has been well prepared with plow
and harrow, roller If. necessary, har-
rowing in il necessary, plenty Of a
good ammoniated phosphate, with
potash. The tomato does its best in a
soil well supplied with the mineral
elements. The crop is pushed from
the start with all necessary shallow
cultivation, going through with the
hoe once or even three times.
About the time the first fruit begins
to set, the vines are encircled with a
band of cloth or coarse Irvine, draw
ing them slightly in to the stake. This
band, placed twelve or fifteen inches
from the ground, ordinarily keeps the
fruit from the earth. l split the stake
on rainy days, They are made about
three feet long
Sometimes l have varied the plan a
little by using two plants to the stake
one on each side, and having the rows
twenty-eight or thirty inches. One
acre grown in this manner win usually
produce as much merchantable fruit
as two acres in the ordinary way Il
is equally satisfactory also when only
a few dozen or a few hundred plants
are grown.-Samuel 0. Cook, ii
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