138 THE FLORIST AND POMOLOGIST. [June, 



it can be checked by want of pot room in the first instance, and afterwards by 

 thinning and stopping its branches. It is fortunate that this plant is a denizen 

 of the kitchen garden, where appliances that would be unsightly in dressd ground 

 can be resorted to, for the Tomato is fond of a south wall, or even a melon frame 

 if it could get it ; but it is not to its culture under glass, or against a south 

 wall, that I would now direct attention, but to its bearing Love Apples in any- 

 body's garden. 



Land sloping gently to the south, sheltered by surrounding plantations, and 

 having a substantial barrier, such as a stone or brick wall, against the northern 

 blast, and to reflect the sun's rays, would be considered as signs of a sheltered 

 spot suitable for growing tender plants. All these features must be carefully 

 imitated, for it will be evident to every one that a tender plant cannot but 

 suffer from the effects of a cutting wind ; and hence experienced nurserymen 

 chequer their grounds with Evergreen hedges to shelter the crops enclosed in 

 the squares or quarters. But of all others, the sailor is the man from whom to 

 learn this science of the wind, for it is his first thought in the morning to ascer- 

 tain the point from whence the wind blows, and the power it puts forth ; and you 

 may see the " ancient mariner " hang a canvas sheet against the wind to shelter 

 the man on the out-look, for in our climate the wind is constantly running away 

 with the heat, and leaving the cold behind. Now, this common-sense practice is 

 all that is required in the open garden to protect the Tomato from the sweep of 

 the wind. Instead of planting it, like cabbage plants, on the level surface of the 

 garden, it has to be grown in pens or pits. The earth will lie with little trouble 

 when made to slope two feet horizontal to one foot perpendicular, and with a very 

 .small amount of digging and banking, or, as the navvies have it, " cutting " and 

 '•'filling," it will be easy enough to get a breastwork sloping to the south, and 

 rather longer than the three-feet stem of the Tomato. On this slope a thin coat 

 of small coal, blue slate, or even limewash, to reflect the heat, and act the part 

 of a wall, should be placed, and the ground should then be chequered with such 

 things as pea-sticks to make dead hedges. Of course wooden walls of stakes two 

 feet high or turf walls will answer, or indeed any barrier that will last for one 

 season ; indeed, straw ropes on rough stakes where straw or litter abounds, would 

 require little labour to erect, and still less to clear away when not wanted. The 

 whole thing will look like pens for sheep or pigs at a fair, but the clumsiness of 

 the materials has nothing to do with the principle involved. The rifleman in a 

 rifle pit is safer there, than he would be standing like a gate-post on the level, 

 and he is, moreover, warmer ; and the object of the Tomato-grower is to lengthen 

 the summer a little, and to concentrate the fair weather, and turn aside the foul 

 weather. The plants must be tied to sticks, or trained against the boards, as the 

 fruit is heavy. More accurate instructions might be given, were it not that in 

 each locality the ways and means will vary. Alex. Forsyth. 



