lants in
the open field; while a steady rate of growth is desirable, it should be
slow and the plants kept small by a second and even third and fourth
transplanting, and especial care taken to avoid the soft and irregular
growth resulting from over-watering or over-heating. Any side shoots
which may appear should be pinched out and a full pollination of the
first cluster of the blossoms secured, either by direct application of
pollen or by staking or jarring the plants on bright days; and finally,
special efforts made to set the plants in the field as early and with as
little check as possible. Growers are often willing to run considerable
risk of frost for the sake of early setting.

When one has sandy land a very profitable crop can sometimes be secured
by sowing the seed very early, and growing the plants on in beds until
the first cluster of fruit is set, then heeling them in, much as nursery
trees are, but so close that they can be quickly covered in case of
frost. As soon as it is at all safe to do so, they are set in the open
ground, very closely, on the south side of ridges, so that only the
upper one-third of the plant is exposed, the remainder being laid nearly
level and covered with earth.

So treated the plants will ripen the upper one or two clusters very
early but will yield little more until late in the season, and it is
generally more profitable to plow them up and put in some other crop as
soon as the first clusters of fruit have ripened. Others pinch out the
central bud as soon as it is well formed, usually within 10 days from
the sowing of the seed. When this is done a great proportion of the
plants will start branches from the axils of the cotyledons; these
usually develop blossoms in the third to the fifth node and produce
fruit much lower than in a normal plant. It is questionable if there is
any gain in time from seed to fruit by this method, but it enables one
to get older plants of a size which it is practicable to transplant to
the field.

In most cases it will be found more profitable and satisfactory so to
grow the plants that by the time they can be safely set out of doors
they will be in vigorous condition, about 6 to 10 inches tall, stout,
healthy and well hardened off. Such plants will ripen fruit nearly, and
often quite as early as older ones and will produce a constant
succession of fruit, instead of ripening a single cluster or two and
then no more until they have made a new growth.