[6]

[4.]

with a hoe, and afterwards I hoed them every five days.

One week after the last transplanting, (May 29) I . noticed the first bloom. The next day when I stirred the soil around the plants I pruned them for the first time. I kept pruning them regularly, pinching out every small limb that came out at the forks of the leaves up to the fourth flower-cluster, and removing all the suckers from the roots of the vines.

They were plowed with a cultivator four times, the last time after the tomatoes were ripening and some had been taken off.

I noticed the first little tomatoes June 8. Then came the staking, the most tiresome part of the work. The stakes were five feet long and had to be driven, at least, one foot into the ground. It took me nearly three days to drive the stakes and tie the vines