The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1908-10-28
TOMATOES ON lI-FOOT VINES
A KANSAS CITY MAN is DOING
WONDERS WITH VEGETABLE.
Sight of the Mammoth Vines Is Be-
wildering. The Process of
Giant Tomato Culture.

OiahC tomato Culture.
A Kansas City, Mo-, dispatch says:
When E. M. Wiggin of No. 1850
North Valley street, Kansas City.
wishes to recharge his winter
larder with catsup he does not go
forth in the spring and plant a vine
yard of the luscious love apples"
necessary to its composition. In
stead he takes two or more of the
tiny dishlike seeds, buries them in
certain mysterious manner and waits
for the harvest
How does Wiggin, who is an or
binary brick mason. plant the seed
and tend the plants of the tomato
in order to produce skyscrapers of
vegetable life? 1t is very simple
and easy, he says, but neighbors who
have tired his system, as he explains
1t, with Indifferent results, think he
is holding something back. Their
vines have no fru'tion when over
three feet in height. Across the
lot, in the Wiggin yard, great red
and yellow tomatoes nod at their
efforts from an altitude of eleven
feet and four inches How does he
do it?
This year Wiggin has three vines.
Two of them are more than eleven
feet high and contain just thirty
four tomatoes apiece. The tomatoes
nearest the ground are sixteen inch
es in circumference and weigh from
two and One-half to three pounds
each. Some of the fruit has not yet
r'pened and to protect the vine from
the frost requires six ordinary bed
sheets sewed together into a great
nightcap.
The brick mason, who is also a
gardener, is very fond of showing
the plants to visitors. In the early
morning, encased in cotton sheet
ing, they resemble unveiled statues
standing on either side of the front
yard. With artistic pride, too, he
approaches them and begins to un-
fasten loops along the side while the
tenderfoot in plant lore stands mouth
agape expecting to see a full fledged
Venus in classic pose with the I'M
casing.
But the sight of the mamoth vines
on the trelis supports is sufficiently
bewildering, considering the short
seasons and city atmosphere of Kan
sas City. From the trunky stalk to
the tOpmOst tendril there is no blight
ed fruit. The species, too, is the
common or garden sort, which makes
the size more a matter of marvel
and conjecture.
The way Wiggin explains his pro-
cess of giant tomato culture follows:
About the middle of April he plants
the seed in holes eighteen inches or
two feet deep. AS the plant grows
he stamps earth mixed with stable
refuse about the stalk until the hole
is completely filled.
The tomato, Wiggin explains, is
the product of South America, where
it grows to the height of twenty
feet in the damp and warm morasses
along the Amazon river. To accom-
plish the best results, then, it would
seem necessary to have the tempera- |
ture about the plant evenly warm and |
moist. The decaying manure fur
nishes the uniform warmth and holds |,
the moisture.
Any one can grow enormous to- |
matoes," says Wiggin, eff he will |
take up an encyclopaedia and look |
up the word and then try to initiate
the conditions the book says were |
enjoyed by the original plant. That |
was the way l did, and these are the |
results