TRAINING AND WATERING. 161 
older leaves or to cut them in two near the middle in 
order to let in light. As the fruit sets the leaves near the 
base of the plant begin to die, and they should be picked 
off. Healthy plants in full bearing are often bare of 
leaves for the first 2 feet. The fruit is borne on one side 
of the stem, and it is a common notion that the plants 
must be so placed that this side of the stem shall be 
toward the sun. This precaution is entirely unnecessary. 
When the plants are set in benches, at distances of 2 
or 3 feet, two or three shoots may be trained out upon 
diverging strings, in fan-shaped fashion. If the fan stands 
north and south it will probably interfere least with the 
light. Tomatoes are sometimes trained along under the 
roof as rafter plants, but this system is not adapted to 
commercial purposes, as it darkens the house so much 
that few plants can be grown, and the rafter plants are 
likely to suffer from cold. 
As soon as the fruit becomes heavy the largest clusters 
will need to be held up. A sling of rafa is caught over 
a joint of the plant and is passed under the middle of the 
cluster, as seen in Fig. 52 (at a; b, ¢ page 160), which 
shows the bearing portion of a good average plant. 
Upon very strong vines the clusters sometimes 
‘*break,’”’? or push out a shoot from the end. This shoot 
should be cut off. Tomatoes upon clusters where this 
abnormal shoot was allowed to grow were generally 
smaller and more irregular than upon clipped shoots. 
Watering. — During all the early growth of the plant 
the atmosphere may be kept moist, particularly in sunny 
days, when it is customary to wet down the walks. Care 
must be taken in watering. It is best to soak the soil 
pretty thoroughly at each watering, yet it should not be 
drenched. Careless watering usually leaves the surface 
wet, while the under soil remains dry. This must be 
avoided. In midwinter we water our plants thoroughly 
about twice a week, giving no water directly to them be- 
tween times. If the red spider should attack the plants, 
