Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1913-05-31
DAILY HINTS ON
FARM TOPICS
By K. A. Kirkpatrick
st,err POINTS IN

TOMATO GROWING
LAST year, In working among
msrkst fsrdsnsrs In the MinneApo.
IL district, found that 4 few 81
the men there made signal success
81 III getting early tomatoes. Ont
mSn IA that district. Oh less than
Two AorSs Of land. has for the last
three years Or four years secured
On average return Of over $4,000. J
noticed this man ON the Minneapolis
market last year bringing In loads
0f early tomatoes, TOR when he re.
csiv1d % high % ta5v, This wat
q thu rate OF shout $500 per bush.
Of. Ne WAS able to do this by hav.
inr the fruits ripen ten days to two
Wsskt pSforo any OF his competitors,
His scheme for getting the early
frsits II A'bout w follows:
The plants are started Ii the ho,
beds cutie early. They are next
tranSbiAnted to ANAL thumb potl
Or paper cylinders. Another trans
planting 10 given into rnsdium-siked
pots. The third trahsplAntinS places
them iHto I Or ! inch pot1. In these
pots they arc carried along until
they xtU Just about ready TO come
into tloss0n. Wnsn they reach this
stare. the water ID withheld and
they are starved and given oil the
ventilation they will possibly stand
until the weather ID warm enough
to plant them out ID the isld. II one
knocks ono Of the plants out OF 9
rot ana examines II, 1t this stage
pot. no hnds new root growth has
come out and covered those that up.
parsntly dead. The plant has been
starved 70 the extent that It haa
been permanently dwarfsd.
About ten days before the weath.
or will allow planting out doors, va
ter a again given to the plants In
the pots ana they are given liberal
feed OF nitrate OF soda. This forces
them into rapid growth and At the
end Of week Or ten days II one
pot, he, finds that new root growth
peAred dead before. The plant 10
weather conditions are Just right
and It starts right on growing. The
first ret OF blossoms seldom fails to
give : good set OF young Tomatoes,
and there IL no waste time BY the
plant growing excessive foliage or
branches.
From the time the plant goes into
the Held, It spends all OF its energy
setting tomatoes and ripenfng them.
In looking over q field OF plants
treated In this way found not one
plant that had gone to excessive
branching or leaf growth. None Of
them had heishth OF more than
/ liz Inches The side branches ex-
tended To = distance OF about IS
tnthes. Along these branches were
clusters Of perfect fruit. The yield
from IN aero treated Ia this way was
Soinethink wonderfuI In fact the
whole surfxce Of the ground Seem
"a % b covered with the fruit.
About 900 bushels per acre Ut sale
AblA fruit wAs secured per ASre. The
large profits made came from the
fact that 4 big proportion of this
fruit was ready to be placed On the
market ahead OF all local competi-
ton,
It. should be noted that the SOIL
situation was rather : light sand
with 1 quick exposure. The soil was
Abundantly MANFRED, using the ma
nure from old hot beds supplement-
ed with manure obtained from Nv
cry ard sales barns
Fertilixers for Tomatoes.
The question OF the suitable fer
tiliser to .e used with or without
manure on tomato felds IL OF con-
sidef9ble i'm portance in many places
In this district. IN some fertilixlng
work Investigated at the Illinois sta
tion, II was found that growers on
clay soil used fertilizer carrying
l.t4 per cent Of nitrogen, 3.49 per
cent Of available phosphate acid
and 5.s1 per cent Of potash.
Roughly speaking. this would be 4
2-4.S fertilizer. An application vas
made In the hill before the plants
were set and the broadcast method
was used. The latter gave better
average results than whore the fer
tilixer was placed III hills. The use
OF fertilizer In connection with ma
nure IN hills gave better results
than where fertilizer alone was
used. II was also found that q
home-mixed fertilizer, consisting OF
two parts OF dried blood, two parts
81 steamed bone meal, ana one part
] ~ rotassinm sulphate gave the best
OO0It3 SufOU80 B0ElOD "a yOoN
n placing this Ia the hills a0out
,ne-ioufth Of Z pound psr plant wa
iesd, and In case II WAS bToadcssted
| he same amount was used except
hat Il Wa scattered over the sur.
ace OF the ground and worked into
! 10 top soil. Il vas found that the
! ertiliser increased the eArliness OF
! opening and tho amount Of fruit
.ottsu from the plots.
In nullstin publishsd ~ the de-
paStmsnt Of agriculture. the fol-
ewing pian for fertiliEing tomatoes
given: Commercial fertilizers
poaring from one to two per cent
u nitrogen Ia the form Of nitrate
u sodA, from : to ~ por cent phos-
,horie acid ana from to 8 per cent
II potash should b used. "A dress-
mr. Of from 400 TO 700 pounds per
.cre 10 given. Tho fertiliser. 10 sown
IN 1 strip about one or two feet
vide. sionr the row instead Of being
own broadcast over the whole area.
II IL . very simple matter to test