Growing Tomatoes in Northern Minnesota.

REV.  GEO. MICHAEL, WALKER, MINN.

Sow seed in hotbed about April first, in rows five inches apart and five inches apart in each row.  Transplant in garden one week after danger of frost is past.  The day before transplanting soak the hotbed thoroughly with warm water.  In taking them up to transplant use a sharp butcher knife; the ground thus cut out will form a cube five inches in diameter.  This block, should be set in a hole ten to twelve inches deep.  The ground around the block must be made very firm.  This block will be four to six inches below the surface. Fill the hole with warm rainwater and three or four hours later rake in loose dirt to fill the hole, being careful not to pack it in the least.

How to prepare the ground. Manure heavily; plow very deep; harrow thoroughly.  Then in forming the hills place two shovelfuls of fine manure and one-half shovelful of hen manure for each hill.  Spade this in from twelve to eighteen inches deep and eighteen to twenty inches wide.  Cultivate often.

The plants should be staked at first to keep the wind storms from injuring them.  When one and one-half feet high they should be trained over poles placed on each side of the row one and one-half feet from the ground.  Plant hills four feet apart, and train each plant to four or five vines, cutting off all side shoots and a few of the leaves. Never cut off the top of a vine to hasten the ripening.

Make the ground as rich as possible, plough deep, plant deep, set deep and prune carefully.  If you do not use poles or a trellis the vines thus managed should spread over the ground as pumpkin vines grow, and instead of “going all to vines” the tendency will be to go all to tomatoes.

A big story. Over $3,000 per acre.  In 1910 I had three rows each forty feet long and four feet apart, i.e., a row 120 feet long, or 480 square feet.  More than $35.00 worth of ripe tomatoes were taken from these vines, the price never more nor less than five cents per pound.  If 480 square feet will produce $35.00, 43,560 square feet would produce $3,175.

During the tomato season I was away from home when a neighbor gathered bushels which are not counted in the above figures, and our family used and gave away several bushels more.

Annual Report, 1915, Vice-President, Fourth Congressional District.

J. K. DIXON, NORTH ST. PAUL, MINN.

The fourth district fruit crops—­with the exception of strawberries and raspberries—­were conspicuous by their absence this season of 1915.

A festive blizzard that came prancing our way the 17th of May effectually destroyed what promised to be a bumper crop of apples and plums.  The trees were for the most part past the blossoming stage, and the fruit had started to develop.  Currants and grapes met the same disastrous fate.  Only in favored situations, adjacent to large bodies of water, were there any apples, plums, grapes or currants to speak of.