TOMATO CROWING IN WINTER.

Successful tomato culture under glass, depends as much upon the man in charge as upon conditions. Eternal vigilance and the exercise of good judgment on the part of the grower are more essential than strict adherence to set rules. The crop is one which demands constant care and intelligent management, but under suitable conditions the returns are very satisfactory; and the product meets a ready demand at good prices.

The most important conditions for forcing tomatoes are: A warm light house one having a two-thirds span facing the south being preferable strong bottom heat, rich soil, careful training, uniform temperature, care in watering and pollinating, and, as before suggested, good judgment and constant watchfulness on the part of the growBottom heat is not absolutely essential to success, but the crop matures more quickly if given this condition.

er.

To make the best use of the house, two crops should be grown during the season. This will bring each crop on at a season when the expense of heating, during a part of the time, will be slight. Plants for the first crop should be started as early as the first of August. If two or more houses are available, a second sowing should be made in about 3 weeks, to give a succession. For the second crop, seed should be sown during the latter part of October.

The plants are treated in every way as for out-door culture till handled the last time. For fruiting, some prefer benches, with about 6 inches of soil; but, in the writer's experience, the best results have been obtained from the use of boxes 18 inches square and 12 inches deep.24 In the bottom of the boxes is placed a layer of charcoal, broken pots, or "clinkers" from the furnace; after which soil, consisting of 3 parts good garden loam and 1 part well rotted stable manure, is filled in to within 2 or three inches of the top. Each box will hold 4 plants, and the check caused by the partial confinement of the roots seems to be of value in hastening maturity. If the solid bed is used, instead of the boxes, the plants are set about 16 inches apart each way, thus occupying a little more than 1% square feet of floor space, for each plant.

Best returns usually follow where the plants are trained to a single stem, as shown on page 57. Flax cords, about the size of wool twine, are fastened to the corners of the boxes, or to wires placed parallel to each row, for that purpose, and attached above to wires running lengthwise of the building, on the rafters or sashbars. The plants are secured loosely to this support by means of short pieces of raffia. All side shoots should be pinched out as soon as they appear; and when the plants are about 5 feet high, or when 4 clusters of fruit have set, the terminal buds should be pinched off. The vitality of the

24 Ann. Rept. Maine Agr. Expt. Sta. 1894, pp. 58-60.

If the plants

plant will then be expended in the development of fruit. are not headed back, other fruit clusters will form, but these scattering later clusters will unduly prolong the fruiting season without giving sufficient financial return to warrant delaying the removal of the old plants.

As the fruit sets, the clusters should be supported by means of a small cord or piece of raffia passing around the main stem above a leaf, thus forming a sling. At this time, too, it is well to stir the surface of the soil, and work in a quantity of well rotted manure, or to give frequent applications of liquid manure.

The temperature of the house should be as nearly uniform as possible about 60 degrees at night and 70 degrees in dark weather, but 80 degrees or even higher on bright sunny days. All cold drafts and sudden changes of temperature should be rigidly avoided.

FINANCIAL RETURNS.

er.

The writer's experience in forcing tomatoes is limited to New York and New England, where, owing to the low temperatures and the excessive number of dark cloudy days, the yields were not large. In Maine,25 the yield per plant, with the best forcing varieties, was 21⁄2 to 3 lbs. In New Jersey the average yield reported is somewhat largOn the basis of 3 lbs. per plant, however, the returns at 30 cents per pound, or 25 cents at wholesale, are very profitable; being about 50 cents per square foot of bench space, for each crop. Of course these figures can not always be relied upon, for unforseen conditions frequently arise; but, on the other hand, the experienced gardener will, by the use of other crops, as lettuce, radishes and cucumbers, utilize the space in the house so as to provide against these unforseen factors.

The average yield per acre, as grown for the canneries, is 125 to 150 bushels. The man who makes a specialty of tomatoes however, will not be content with less than twice the amount named. It is bettere to cultivate fewer acres and cultivate them well, than to attempt to cover too much ground. Even at 200 bushels per acre, however, the returns will be far greater than can be derived from wheat, corn, or other farm products.

No attempt is made to exert undue influence by citing special instances of large crops or large prices. As a simple business proposition, however, tomato growing offers excellent opportunities at this time.

25 Ann. Rept. Maine Agr. Expt. Sta., 1894, p. 62.

THE GRAPECANE GALL-MAKER AND THE GRAPECANE GIRDLER.

By Fred E. Brooks.

INTRODUCTION.

We have in West Virginia two species of little snout-beetles that injure grapevines by attacking the new canes soon after growth begins in the spring. They are the grapecane gall-maker, Ampeloglypter sesostris Lec. and the grapecane girdler, Ampeloglypter ater Lec. AS their generic name indicates, the two species are nearly related. So far as size and shape are concerned, the differences are scarcely discernable, but in color the gall-maker is dark brown, while the girdler is shining black. Their methods of attacking the vine are also distinct. The gallmaker, in providing a place to deposit its egg, makes a wound in the cane which develops later into a gall-like swelling, whereas the girdler, in its egg-laying operation, cuts off the tip and otherwise mutilates the end of the young cane.

Both insects vary greatly as to their abundance in different seasons. For a year or two the characteristic marks of one or both species will be very conspicuous on the vines, and then for a period of a few years following they may be almost entirely absent. This irregularity in their occurrence is due largely to the fact that when the beetles increase in numbers there follows a corresponding increase in the numbers of their natural enemies. These enemies, which are chiefly parasitic insects, attack the beetles in their immature stages and sometimes reduce them almost to the point of extermination. When there comes a decrease in the parasite the beetles begin to multiply, but since the females of neither species produce many eggs it takes them some time to recover from the set-back.

Very little preference is shown by either insect for any particular species or variety of grape. I have found the evidences of their work on about twenty varieties of cultivated grapes and on three wild sorts that are commonly found in the woods and grown-up fields of the northern and central portions of this state. These wild sorts are the northern fox grape, Vilis labrusca, the "hill-grape" or "frost-grape," Vitis aestivalis, and the "chicken grape," or "pigeon grape," Vitis cordifolia. Both the gall-maker and the girdler are undoubtedly natives of this country and must have confined their attacks originally to wild grapes and kindred plants.

The Grapecane Gall-maker. a, egg: b, larva; c. pupa: d, adult; e, ettle making the wound in the cane that contains the egg and later causes the gall to form: 1, transverse section of wound showing egg in lower chamber. All except "f" greatly enlarged. Drawings by A. B. Brooks.

THE GRAPECANE GALL-MAKER—Ampeloglypter sesostris Lec.

Order Coleoptera; family Curculionidae.

HISTORY AND DISTRIBUTION.

About ten years ago this insect was made the subject of an investigation in Ohio, conducted by F. M. Webster, and the results were published as Bulletin 116 of the Ohio Experiment Station. The bulletin gives the more essential facts in regard to the gall-maker and its habits, but since the publication of that paper a few additional points relative to the species have been observed in West Virginia. These observations, together with those already published, give us a farily complete knowledge of the insect as it occurs in this section of the United States. Webster collected galls from grapecanes in June and kept them until the larvae which inhabited them transformed to beetles in August and September, thus showing that the adult stage is reached in late summer instead of in the spring, as had been supposed previously. I was unable to duplicate this breeding work satisfactorily on account of the extent to which my specimens were parasitized. On the other hand, I watched the female on several occasions while she was engaged in egg-laying, an operation which I believe has not been described heretofore. Most of my observations on this species were made at French Creek, W. Va., in the summer of 1905, where, at that time, the beetles were very abundant. Since 1905 but few specimens have been seen in that locality and examples of their work have been correspondingly scarce.

The species was described by LeConte in 1876, from specimens collected in Missouri. Since that time it has been reported from Minnesota, Ohio, Pennsylvania and other eastern, south-eastern and midwestern states.

THE ADULT INSECT.

The gall-maker in its adult stage is a reddish-brown beetle which measures about one-eighth of an inch in length and one-twentieth of an inch in width. It has a curved snout, one-third as long as the body, which it carries projecting forward and downward. The thorax and head are finely and densely punctured and the wing-covers are furrowed longitudinally. The beetles appear on grapevines during the month of May and are present for several weeks. They are so small however, that they rarely attract attention. Soon after their appearance the females begin to oviposit in the young canes, and after the eggs are laid the parent beetles of both sexes disappear in late June or July.

The beetles feed sparingly on the vine and in doing so make little pits in the young tendrils, in the buds and bark on new canes and in the mid-ribs on the underside of leaves. It is probable also that the female swallows some of the tissue which she tears from the cane in