Chapter 17
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 b.u.mper 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
[Ill.u.s.tration: Mr. J. K. Dixon, North St. Paul.]
In my orchard, at North St. Paul, we burned wet straw smudges every second row on the outside of the orchard, allowing the wind to drift the smoke through trees. This was done by adding the wet straw at intervals to the burning piles in order to create a continuous dense smoke. When daylight appeared we noticed the ground covered with a beautiful blanket of frost, and decided two men smoking pipes would have been as effective treatment as the smudge.
In this, however, I have since concluded we were mistaken. As the season advanced we noticed the first three or four rows in from the smudges gave us our only apples, whereas the further one went in the fewer were found, until they finally disappeared entirely.
Question: If the above treatment had been given every second or third row throughout orchard, what would the results have been?
Strawberries and raspberries proved their superior ability to withstand the a.s.saults of King Boreas and Jack Frost. Strawberries were in blossom and were saved from total loss by a two or three inch blanket of wet snow that fortunately preceded the frost. Consequently they are reported as fair to good crop. Raspberries, owing to the abundant and regular rainfall, are reported from all over the district as a fair crop. One grower having one-half acre of the St. Regis everbearing red raspberry reports having ripe berries from the last week in June to the 8th day of October, when a big freeze-up put them out of commission. This one-half acre produced 2,000 pints, that sold for fancy prices. Also the everbearing strawberries are reported as making good and proving their claim to recognition as an established inst.i.tution in the fruit world.
A few of the largest growers report spraying with lime-sulphur and a.r.s.enate of lead. However, the rainfall was too abundant at the right time (or wrong time) to get best results.
Very little blight is reported as present the past summer, and what little there was yielded readily to the pruning knife applied five or six inches below infected wood, being careful to sterilize tool in solution of corrosive sublimate. The most serious injury from blight is caused by its attacking tender sprout growths on trunks or large branches. The blight runs very rapidly down the tender wood, penetrating to the cambium layer, where it causes cankers, often girdling entire trunk and killing tree outright. This is especially true of the Virginia crab and Wealthy apple.
Trees and plants came through last winter in A1 condition as a consequence of a mild winter, and this fall they go into winter quarters with abundance of moisture and well ripened wood.
Considerable nursery stock was planted last spring with excellent results, due to plentiful supply of moisture from spring to fall.
While fruit growing in Minnesota is not so extensively engaged in as in some reputed fruit growers' paradises we read about, I wish to state that the South and East (to speak in the vernacular) "has nothing on us." I have reliable information that the same freeze that cleaned us out up here in the North did the same trick for growers at Mobile, Alabama. Therefore, I advise members not to yield to discouragement.
Plant and care for varieties recommended in the society planting list and emulate the society motto, "Perseverantia Vincimus."
From replies to letters sent out the following list of varieties appears to be in favor as the most desirable to plant in this district:
Apples: Wealthy, Okabena, d.u.c.h.ess, Patten's Greening.
Crabs: Florence, Whitney, Lyman's Prolific.
Plums: DeSoto, Hawkeye, Wyant, Wolf.
Raspberries: King, Sunbeam, Minnetonka Ironclad.
Currants: Perfection, Prince Albert, Long Bunch Holland, Wilder.
Gooseberries: Carrie, Houghton, Downing.
Grapes: Beta, Concord, Delaware.
Hardy Shrubs: Spirea Van Houtii, Hydrangea P.G., s...o...b..ll, Syringa, Tartarian Honeysuckle, Lilac, High-bush Cranberry, Barberry, Sumac, Elderberry, Golden Leaf Elder, Buckthorn for hedges.
Hardy Perennials--Flowers: Delphinium, Campanula, Phlox, Paeonies, Iris, Hermerocallis, Tiger Lilies.
Tender Plants: Dahlias, Gladiolus.
Annual Report, 1915, Mandan, N.D., Trial Station.
W. A. PETERSON, SUPT., MANDAN, N.D.
In the spring of 1914 a number of plums, grapes and raspberries were received from the Minnesota Fruit-Breeding Farm. The larger part of the plums were winter killed in 1914-15. Those that survive after a few more winters may be considered as practically hardy. Those remaining made a good growth in 1915, but did not bear.
The grapes lived through the winter in good shape, although they had been covered. These are all Beta seedlings.
The raspberries Nos. 3, 7, and 8, were partly covered and partly left exposed--all three numbers died to the ground when not protected. No. 4 was received in the spring of 1915 and made a good growth.
Strawberry No. 1017 was received in spring 1915 and bore heavily this fall but made only a very few runners.
Extensive experiments are being carried on in plant-breeding, pomology, vegetable gardening, arboriculture and ornamental horticulture, and in the course of time a lot of valuable information will be gathered.
On the whole the season was backward in spring and the summer was abnormally cool. There was sufficient rainfall for all crops.
Fruit Growing a Successful Industry in Minnesota.