173 THE FLORAL WOULD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



TOMATOES. 



EX GEOKGE GEAY, 

 Head Gardener, Norbiton Hall, Kingston-on-Thames. 



[NTIL the last few years, the cultivation of tomatoes was 

 confined almost exclusively to the gardens of the 

 wealthy ; but now, so much has their popularity in- 

 creased, they are grown more or less in the gardens 

 of all classes. It is not likely that the tomato will ever 

 attain in this country to the degree of popularity it enjoys at the 

 present time in America ; but there can be no doubt that when its 

 cultivation and the manner of preparing the fruit for table are better 

 understood, there will be very few gardens indeed in which it is 

 not grown extensively. 



Excepting in the southern and midland parts of the country, the 

 plants must, to enable them to .produce good crops, have the 

 assistance of a wall, or close boarded fence ; and they do better even 

 in the most favoured districts when trained to a wall or fence having a 

 south aspect. They do well on east and west aspects, but an aspect 

 due south is decidedly preferable. Good crops can be produced on 

 sloping banks ; and those who have no wall or fence on which to 

 train the plants may succeed very well by throwing up a bank of 

 soil having a sharp slope of about three feet. The trench from 

 which the soil is obtained for making the mound should be made on 

 the north side, because they require all the warmth at the roots they 

 can have, and it is therefore not desirable to plant below the general 

 level. 



In the southern and midland counties good crops can be grown 

 in the open borders, and trained to stakes, or the growth may be 

 .supported with ordinary pea-sticks, in exactly the same manner as 

 peas. Those put out in the open quarters should be planted upon 

 beds measuring thirty inches across the top and about twelve inches 

 above the general level. The beds can be easily made by forming 

 a twelve-iuch trench on each side, and taking out sufficient soil to 

 raise them to the desired height. The surface of the beds should be 

 perfectly level, to prevent the rain running off, and also to facilitate 

 watering, in case it becomes necessary, during the summer. 



One of the most essential conditions for insuring success is to 

 secure strong plants by the time the season is sufficiently advanced 

 for planting them out. As the weather is seldom favourable enough 

 to admit of their being planted out, without they can be protected, 

 before the end of May, it is a more excellent plan to shift them into 

 eight-inch pots in the early part of the month. It is, however, a much 

 better plan to plant them out in the first or second week of May, 

 and protect them with Looker's Patent Plant-covers, which were 

 figured and described in the August number of the Floeal Woeld of 

 last year. Strong plants put out early in May, and these covers put 

 over them, and ventilated freely in congenial weather, will be well 



