Plants grown on stakes or trellises are more susceptible to frost than those grown on the ground as the soil holds the heat and it is an easy matter to cover a considerable number of plants at one time with tarpaulin or even newspapers and this should be done when there is even a slight prospect of frost. The thermometer should be watched in the late fall and if it is going down towards nightfall those plants which one wishes to save should be protected.
After the first three hard frosts there are usually two or three weeks of fine weather and it is at this time that tomatoes and other perishable garden stuff command the highest price and those who are fortunate enough to have a surplus to sell can realize a neat little sum that will more than pay for the trifling trouble involved.
I am often asked which is the best tomato for the home garden and have no hesitation in saying that, all things considered, there is no better tomato raised, for an all season crop, than the Dwarf, Improved Stone. There are earlier tomatoes and larger tomatoes. The Early Detroit is earlier, but not very much so, and it does not compare in size and quality with the Stone. Ponderosa is a much larger tomato but the quality is not up to the Stone nor is its freedom from cracking and irregularity to be compared to the Stone. Then the Stone is such a satisfactory plant in the way of foliage and stem, so heavy and rugged, the thick, crumply leaves are very distinctive and the plants always command attention even when not in fruit. The fruit is quite as large as best requirements demand and it slices beautifully for the table and canned is entirely free from that peculiar taste that characterizes the commercial tomato.
Earliana is the earliest and the most popular sort of the extra early tomato and a few plants for early use will be worth while. There is also a new ball-shaped tomato, New Globe, that is good for slicing as it gives a number of fine slices just alike instead of the three usually obtained from a flat tomato, only one—the middle—being perfect. So if one wants a variety in the garden one may plant with entire confidence the Dwarf Stone and Vaughan's Improved New Stone and add for variety the Earliana and the New Globe.
SQUASH
ENGLISH MARROW
In sections where the eggplant does not do well, or where one lacks the skill to succeed with it a very satisfactory substitute will be found in the English marrow; this is a bush form of the vegetable marrows and occupies about as much ground as an eggplant. The vine sorts are such rampant growers that they require a garden to themselves or at least a walled enclosure, but they are very profitable to grow as they produce enormously and the fruit is excellent fried like eggplant; few, if any, persons would be able to distinguish between them and the difference, if any, would be in favor of the marrow.
Rich warm soil is required for all the squash family and the bush varieties are no exceptions. Give in addition to the usual manuring of the garden a good forkful of manure in each hill. Space the hills four feet apart each way and plant several seeds in each hill to provide for the appetite of the squash bugs which make no exception in favor of bush varieties; when danger of bugs is past the plants should be thinned to three or four plants in a hill.
To repel the squash vine borer scatter a handful of tobacco dust about the plants and at the first appearance of wilt in the leaves examine the stems carefully for the point where the worm found entrance and either slit the stalk sufficiently to uncover the worm or run a wire up the stalk until he is encountered and killed; then if possible, bury the wound in soil so that the branch may be saved; if, however, there is too much injury done or the wound is too high up it will be best to remove that part of the branch; at the same time the rest of the plants should be carefully examined for other signs of injury, and the ground inspected for larvæ. For yellow striped beetle and blight spray early and repeatedly with Bordeaux arsenate of lead mixture.
The marrows are finer eating when only two-thirds grown. They should be peeled, sliced and covered with salt for an hour, then rinsed and drained and breaded and fried the same as eggplant, or, if preferred, may be cooked and mashed like summer squash. They are good either way.