The Culture of Vegetables 



season, but a shorter period will suffice in spring and summer. 

 Plants from a September sowing will not mature fruit in much less 

 than six months, while a March sowing will yield a return in four 

 months or less. Much depends on the character of the season, and 

 more on skill and attention. Those who sow in the middle of 

 February should sow again a fortnight later for succession crops, 

 and finally in the early part of March for plants to be hardened pre- 

 paratory to their being put into the open ground at the end of 

 May or beginning of June. 



In the first instance there need be no anxiety about soil. Any 

 fairly good sandy loam will answer for the seed-pans, and if too stiff 

 it may be freely mixed with sharp sand or the sifted sweepings from 

 roads and gravel walks. A fibrous loam, cut from a rich pasture, and 

 laid up in a heap for twelve months, will, with an addition of grit, 

 make an ideal soil for pots or borders. As the plants advance, leaf- 

 mould or thoroughly decayed manure in moderate quantity should 

 be supplied ; but, instead of incorporating it with the loam in the 

 usual way, it will be found advantageous to place the manure imme- 

 diately above the crocks, and the roots will find it at the right time. 

 But the quantity of manure must not be overdone, especially in the 

 earlier stages of growth, because excessive luxuriance neither promotes 

 fruitfulness nor conduces to early ripening. After the fruit has set, 

 a mulch of decayed manure will aid the plants in finishing a heavy 

 crop, brilliant in colour and superb in flavour. Manure which is 

 only partially fermented will not do at all. The ammonia it liberates 

 exerts so deadly a power that we have seen thousands of plants 

 scorched in a few hours, as with the blast of a furnace. 



In its demand for potash the Tomato closely resembles the Potato, 

 and of the two, the former is the more exacting. So quickly does this 

 crop exhaust the soil, that in small houses it is usual to take out the 

 earth to a depth of fifteen or eighteen inches every second or third 

 year, and replace it with virgin loam. On a small scale this is rather 

 a serious matter, and for an extensive range of houses with limited 

 resources the exchange of soil becomes an impossibility. Some of 

 the Guernsey growers have met the difficulty by constructing vast 

 houses upon flanged wheels, resting on iron rails to facilitate removal 

 to fresh ground. Others grow the Tomatoes alternately in the bed 

 and in pots, but this is only a partial remedy. Constant dressings 

 of farmyard or stable manure result in the formation of humus, which, 

 as it becomes sour, has to be sweetened by the solvent influence of 

 lime. Even this treatment will only extend the fertility of the soil 



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