TOMATO FOR CITY GARDEN PLOTS. 



My house is in the midst of the city of New-York, near Union Park; and surrounded 

 therefore by other houses. My yard at the back of it, is possibly some thirty feet by 

 twenty, with narrow borders round it, and grass in the centre. The white boards which 

 form the fence round it, and the glare of the summer sun upon them, are not agreeable 

 to my eye; and in the spring of the 3'ear I was debating with myself how I could cover 

 them most expeditiously. How, of all things, tomatoes came into my head I know not, 

 but the notion struck me that tomatoes would do very well against the white boards and 

 would at least afford something green to look upon, which would at all events be an im- 

 provement upon the then existing state of things. This was about the middle of May, 

 when tomato plants should be ready for planting out; however, I got some seed and 

 sowed it in a pot, which I put in a green-house, and my plants in a few days made their 

 appearance. However, in the last week of May, I accidentally met with some tomato 

 plants, and being impatient I bought a few, for a shilling a dozen, and planted them out 

 against the fence at the distance of about three feet apart. I should mention that the 

 earth in the borders was of the commonest description, little better than sand and rub- 

 bish; and I therefore put about half a hat full of half decayed stable manure at the roots 

 of each plant as I put it in. The plants made little progress for a fortnight, when they 

 commenced growing rapidly. They were about a foot high, and not very strong plants, 

 and I placed them about six inches deep in the ground. 



As soon as they had made a growth a foot long, I drove small nails in the fence at dis- 

 tances two feet apart, and taking a long piece of string, and commencing at one end of the 

 yard, I passed it over the plants about three inches below their tops, winding the string 

 round each nail as I came to it; and bj^ this means the plants were in five minutes secur- 

 ed against the boards. In another week or ten days, so rapid was their growth, it became 

 necessary to perform this operation of string tying again, at a greater height; and by-and- 

 b3'e the same thing was repeated more than once, until the tomatoes reached the top 

 of the fence, to which they then formed, as they at this moment continue to do, a 

 a beautiful verdant frieze, as though they were planted on the top of it; whilst the whole 

 way up the fence is covered by the foliage, with which the stems of the plants are well 

 furnished from the ground; and till the frost arrives my eyes are saved from the M'hite- 

 washy appearance which during the summer months is to me particularly disagreeable. 

 So far as regards ornament. But this is not all. Tomatoes are very good things, at least 

 I think so; and judging by the quantities which I see in the markets here, my taste in 

 that particular appears to be participated in, by a very numerous bod}' of my fellow citi- 

 zens. Now from my yard fences, for many weeks past, my table has been liberal!}'- sup- 

 plied with tomatoes, and the plants are still covered with them, as fine in size and in fla- 

 vor as I ever tasted, nothwithstandingthey have been grown thus carelessly in a city house 

 yard. The fence is from seven to eight feet high, and as of course the different sides of 

 the yard present different aspects, the fruit has taken a greater or less time to ripen, ac- 

 cording to the quantity of sun; and as this has applied equally to the earliest produced 

 on the plants, as well as to the succeeding crops, there has been a continued succession 

 of tomatoes ripening throughout the summer. 



Let any one ask himself, is not this worth the trouble? What is the trouble, the plant- 

 ing two or three dozen plants which does not take one hour, and the tying them up against 

 the fence three or four times during the season, which does not take one hour altogether. 

 And what is the expense? Six pennyworth of seed if you raise the plant yourself; or 

 three shillings worth if you do not want that trouble. Many families pay 

 that every week for tomatoes; when on the above plan they may supply them 



