Lewisburg Chronicle

Early Tomatoes.

There are some general principles, which lie at the basis both of good farming and gardening, and which are applicable to growing with success an oak tree, as well as a tomato. Frequent transplanting makes fibre either in the roots of a tree or vegetable here, and is both the secret of getting trees to grow and having early tomatoes. Our Tomato Plants, at the time of this writing (middle of last month) are eighteen inches high, short, thickly branched all around, with a hard, not succulent stem, and out in blossom. In a few days we shall back up a cart to where they are growing, dig them up with a spade, and enough earth and roots adhering to each one, as would go in a quarter peck measure, fling them into the cart, and plant them out either on a clear or cloudy day, as it may happen, and not expect a leaf or blossom to hardly droop its head or wither. The reason is, they will have been thrice transplanted. First sown thickly in the frame, then pricked out into rows afterwards as they increase in size, transplanted into other rows, wider apart and where they would have plenty of room in rich soil to expand and grow before the last removal. The consequence is they acquire a mass of fibrous roots, the very life of the plant, to which the earth adheres, and the stem acquires a firmness, not easily affected by the weather. This is of course done in frames under glass, which are raised from time to time as the height of the plants may require, and to give them room. In this way we have tomatoes about two weeks before our neighbors.—Farm Journal.