Tomatoes in a City Garden 



Frederick Davy, Ottawa, Ont. 



IF a census were taken of the vacant 

 and uncultivated yet cultivable land 

 in towns and cities and the possible 

 produce computed from the market gar- 

 dening standpoint, it might easily be 



Henderson's Ponderosa ^! 



The big tomato in the foregix>uiid weighit-d 



a pound and a quarter, ojid was of 



excellent quality. 



proved that a careful use of such land 

 lor gardens would decrease largely the 

 rost of living of the town and city 

 dweller. Many people do not plant a 

 garden because they think that they 

 have not enough land. Yet something 

 useful can be grown on every foot of 

 land where the sunlight falls. In the 

 rase of a small, well-exp)osed, well- 

 drained piece of land, no crop will yield 

 Ijetter returns in produce and satisfac- 

 tion than tomatoes. 



There is no garden crop that gives 



i'!ore pleasure to housewives — or, in- 



U-ed, more satisfaction to those who 



ippear three times per day about the 



l:imily mahogany — than tomatoes. To- 



rnatftes at table are always in order. 



Ripe, with salt, pepper, or sugar, ac- 



I ording to taste, cooked as vegetables, 



iir in pickles or sauce, they never fail 



lo command the appetites of the hungry. 



The householder who desires a crop 



of tomatoes for personal use generally 



looks for a better offering from the ready 

 soil than such fruit as is grown in the 

 field. If a man, he knows the pleased 

 look that lightens the face of his wife 

 as he hands her a basket of plump, 

 round, smooth, even-sized, prettily-rip- 

 ened pink or red tomatoes. And her 

 words of pleasure at the gift are as great 

 a delight to his heart as was the sight 

 to .Abel of the smoke of his sacrifice as- 

 cending straight to heaven. Only care 

 and gardening skill can produce such 

 fruit. But it is skill such as every son 

 of .Adam may possess if he wishes. 



BEST VABIETIES 



The facts given in this short article 

 are from the experience of the writer, 

 who cultivated a plot of less than one- 

 thirtieth of an acre in the city of Ottawa. 

 The photos are from plants in the plot. 

 The first thing to decide when following 

 suit in any locality is the variety or var- 

 ieties that will be used. After a good 



deal of experience which was checked 

 by consultation with the best authori- 

 ties of the Dominion, the conclusion ar- 

 rived at was that for a city garden it 

 would be hard to beat a combination of 

 Sparks' Earliana, Chalk's Early Jewel, 

 and Henderson's Ponderosa. These 

 ripen in the order named. 



The first are good on account of their 

 earliness, but for table use they do not 

 show the quality of the later and latest 

 of the three. In all average seasons, 

 these three varieties if properly cared 

 for can be made to give ripe fruit for 

 the table from the latter part of July 

 until very late in the autumn or even 

 till Christmas if the late green fruit is 

 gathered with the first frost and wrap- 

 ped in paper and stored on shelves in 

 the cellar. When so handled the fruit 

 goes through a slow ripening process, 

 and can be used as it becomes ready. 



The plants can be started in the house 



Ckalp* E^rly Jewel Tomatoe* 



Th<«(! pkint« rc>a<;hed a height of eight feet six inches and bore fruit all the way up. 

 -Mr Davcy is ahown in the illustration. 



