156 THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST. 



is generally rejected for kitchen use, and it does not sell well. It is 

 also very watery, havinsr scarcely any pulp adhering to the skin; but 

 with all its faults, it is so much superior in flavor to the Large Eed, 

 that while I enjoy eating it raw like a plum, I should never make use 

 of the latter unless cooked. 



This year I have had a surprise, and an agreeable one too. I have 

 cultivated two kinds of tomatoes that I had never before tried, viz: the 

 Trophy and Hathaway's Excelsior. These are of a more regular shape, 

 have both a thicker pulp, and a thick fleshy lining adhering to the skin 

 something like that of a musk-melon, which gives them that firmness 

 which is called in the catalogues "very solid." The flavor of the 

 Trophy is good, but that of the Excelsior is better; yes, superior beyond 

 all expectation. It is as much superior to the common Large Eed as 

 a Lombard is superior to a wild plum. It is not so large or productive 

 as the Trophy, nor have I found it any earlier. I obtained the seed 

 of Jas. Yick, of Eochester, who describes it in his catalogue as " of 

 excellent quality every way — the best tomato I have ever grown," and 

 it quite justifies the description. This fruit is evidently improving, 

 plums will have to get out of the way or it will catch up to them. 



I dare say some of my readers will think that if tomatoes are good 

 they are not deserving of all this eulogy. Well, judging by the same 

 rules as other fruits, perhaps not, but they must take into consideration 

 the comfort they feel after partaking of a liberal allowance ; what a 

 delightful sense of fulness and internal satisfaction they experience ; 

 and then how flattering it is to one's hopes of longevity to know that 

 you are day by day adding a little flesh to your none-too-corpulent 

 figure ; to feel that your vest is getting too small, and that the waist- 

 band of your pants will certainly have to be loosened out. What a 

 relish too you have for your food during the next six months. How 

 glorious a thing it is to be able, like Macbeth, to say, " Throw physic 

 to the dogs," and rejoice in the diminution of your doctor's bills. 

 What a pity it is that we cannot have two crops in the year, so that 

 our shadows might never grow less. 



COAL OIL FOE THE CUECULIO. 



One of our members, E. O'Hara, Chatham, writes that he placed an 

 open basin of coal oil in one of his plum trees last spring/ He now 



