TOMATOES 271 



Christmas and will continue into March. If the house is to be used for toma- 

 toes entirely, another crop should be coming on to take the place of those that 

 are exhausted, and the seed for this is sown in early December, and will make 

 a t-rop to follow on till tomatoes are ripe in the open garden. With the 

 proper structures for the purpose the winter crop of tomatoes can be made a 

 very profitable one, as we have sold them right alongside the Florida tomatoes 

 for 25 cents per pound, when the Floridas were selling for one-fourth the 

 money. The superior quality of tomatoes grown under glass attracts at- 

 tention at once. 



There is no vegetable plant more generally forced than the tomato and 

 none that has been more uniformly profitable when forced; nor is there any 

 crop grown that so readily responds to commercial fertilizers. We have had 

 a long experience in growing winter tomatoes and much prefer to use commer- 

 cial fertilizers than stable manure for them. In fact, the only real failure 

 we ever made was from using stable manure exclusively in our compost, and a 

 liquid manure of cow dung instead of nitrate of soda. We got a tre- 

 mendously rank growth but a very poor bloom and fruitage, and we have dis- 

 carded manure in the culture of tomatoes under glass. If the potting ma- 

 terial known as jadoo fibre was funished more cheaply we would prefer it 

 to any soil mixture we have ever tried; but the commercial grower cannot 

 afford to use it at the price charged. The best soil is made from sods from 

 a mellow loam pasture, piled and rotted one summer in advance of use, and 

 frequently turned till it is perfectly fine and homogeneous. We have always 

 had better success with plants grown in ten or twelve-inch pots than with 

 those planted out in beds. Wooden boxes may be substituted for the pots 

 if desired. We sow the seeds for the winter crop about the last of August, 

 and as soon as large enough pot them into three-inch pots and set them in 

 n frame where they can be watered regularly. As they fill these pots they are 

 transferred to four-inch pots and replaced in the frame. As the nights get 

 cool we take the plants into the house and put them in their fruiting pots. 

 In these pots we use plenty of broken crocks for drainage and cover the drain- 

 age with moss to prevent the soil choking it. The large pots are only filled 

 enough to cover the four-inch balls at first, and as the roots are seen on the 

 surface of the soil another layer is added until finally the pot is sufficiently 

 filled. In this way the roots get complete possession of the soil. I should 

 have said that in this soil we use a liberal mixture of raw bone meal, which 

 furnishes nitrogen and phosphoric acid in sufficient quantity to keep up ^ 

 fair growth. As soon as the plants show bloom we go over them daily at ndoy 

 and apply the pollen to the stigma of the blossoms with a camel's hair brusl 

 If this setting of the flowers is neglected there will be little perfect frgt 



