TOMATOES 269 



sues of the plant, and the first intimation of its presence which the ordinary 

 observer has is the sudden wilting of a large plant full of fruit. If the wilted 

 plant is allowed to remain, the disease extends to others till the whole may 

 be destroyed. It is the great bane of the Southern tomato grower, but unfor- 

 tunately no sure preventive has as yet been discovered. A year ago we 

 gave a piece of ground, where tomatoes had blighted badly the year before, 

 a dressing of lime at the rate of about 30 bushels per acre, and set it again in 

 tomatoes. There was little or no blight that season. This year we set the 

 same plat in tomatoes without any further liming; every plant died from 

 blight. So it would seem that whatever influence the lime had in the pre- 

 vention of the blight was but temporary. Hence the only advice we can give 

 is to avoid land where tomatoes, potatoes or watermelons have been lately 

 grown; as all of them, with the egg plant, are subject to the same disease. 

 The soil gets infected and any remedy that is to be effectual must deal with 

 the soil. Fresh soil from the forest should be used for the growing of the 

 plants for the infection doubtless takes place at an early stage of the growth 

 of the plant. 



VARIETIES OF TOMATOES. 



These are now so numerous that the inexperienced planter is often puz- 

 zled to know what sorts will be best for him to plant. The tomato yields 

 so readily to selection and breeding that the varieties do not long retain their 

 original character. The names of old varieties are continued on the lists of 

 seedsmen, but they are far from being the same as they were when first sent 

 out. One man forms an ideal of what he wants in a tomato, and works at 

 it till he gets nearly what he is after, and the tomato is put into commerce. 

 Then other growers go to work to produce it for the trade, but they work on 

 entirely different ideals from the originator, and the variety in the hands of 

 one grower is still further improved, and under the treatment of another is al- 

 lowed to deteriorate; but both are sold for the same thing year after year. 

 The Trophy tomato, for which we paid to the late Col. Waring $5 for twenty 

 seeds, is still on the seed lists, but it is no longer the Trophy of Col. Waring ; 

 some stocks have run back while others have been selected to an entirely differ- 

 ent type. The earliest and most productive tomato we have ever grown is the 

 variety known as Maule's Earliest. Its fault is lack of smoothness, especially 

 in the earliest specimens. We are at work on this tomato, and hope to evolve 

 from it a tomato with a smooth skin and still as early and prolific as the 

 present type. Fordhook First is another very early tomato of a different 

 type. Atlantic Prize is early but small and unproductive. Early Ruby is 



