1 64 Commercial Gardening 



toes. On warm, genial days the plants receive a good watering, and the 

 ventilation is regulated according to the state of the outside weather. 

 Women are chiefly engaged in picking the leaves, the cost being about 

 2Jd per bushel, and 10 bus., each holding 18 Ib. of Spinach, are picked 

 in a day. Prices for early Spinach rule high, being often as much as 

 6s. to 9s. per bushel. [J. w.] 



The New Zealand Spinach (Tetragona expansa). This is a succulent 

 trailing plant, with thick ivy-like leaves. It is raised under glass from 

 sowings made in March. It is potted into thumb pots, or pricked into 

 trays and planted out in late May or early June in rows 3 ft. apart, with 

 2-ft. spaces in the rows. When once established it grows quickly and 

 covers all the ground. The leaves are gathered for market. It revels in 

 the hot weather, wants frequent waterings, and succumbs to the first frost. 



[w. a L.] 



31. TOMATOES 



Thirty-five years ago the Tomato (Ly coper sicum esculentum) was 

 practically unknown as a marketable fruit in the British Islands. Here 

 and there a market gardener would be found having a few plants as 

 curiosities more than anything else. It gradually began to dawn upon 

 growers, however, that as a money maker there were great possibilities 

 in the cultivation of Tomatoes for market. At first gradually, then by 

 leaps and bounds, space was devoted to the plant in the open air and 

 under glass, and the fruits found an ever-increasing favour in the markets. 

 As the industry developed it became necessary to erect special houses for 

 the plants. At first these were small, perhaps 50 to 100 ft. long and 

 10 to 12 ft. wide, but it was found more economical on the whole to 

 build longer and wider houses, and to use panes of glass as large as 

 possible, to admit the maximum amount of light. 



Some of the largest Tomato houses in the kingdom, perhaps in the 

 world, are those of Messrs. A. W. & G. Smith, at Redlees, Isleworth. 

 Here is a block of twenty-one huge glasshouses, arranged ridge-and- 

 furrow fashion, and covering something over 10 ac. The largest house 

 is nearly 800 ft. long and 32 ft. wide. The houses are continuous one 

 with the other, stout brick piers supporting the guttering between them. 

 There is a door at each end, and ventilators on each side along the top, 

 and also somewhat lower than midway down the slopes. The sashbars 

 are about 2 ft. apart, and the glass used is 21 oz., 24 by 18 in., thus 

 giving plenty of light at all times. The rainwater about 25,000 tons 

 or 5,600,000 gal. annually is not saved, but is allowed to waste at each 

 end of the long range of houses and do a certain amount of mischief to 

 the brickwork. Water, however, is laid on from the main, and is dis- 

 tributed by means of hose pipes attached to standpipes placed at regular 

 intervals at the side of the central pathway. In these houses there are 

 ten plants in a row, one on each side of the pathway, and about 2 ft. 

 is allowed between the rows. The plants are thus about 2 ft. by 1J ft. 



