6o TOMATO CULTURE 



mostly made of five-inch glass. In this, by using a 

 little tin box with holes in the top, like those of a pep- 

 per-box, they scatter seeds so that they will be nearly 

 Yd, to y^ inch apart, over the bottom of the 2-inch 

 wide trench, and then cover. This has the advantage 

 of evenly spacing the plants and so locating the rows 

 that the plants will be little liable to injury from drip. 

 Young tomato plants are very sensitive to over-sup- 

 ply of water and some of the most successful growers 

 do not water at all until the plants are quite large and 

 then only when necessary to prevent wilting. In lo to 

 15 days, or as soon as the central bud is well started, 

 the plants should be pricked out, setting them 3 to 6 

 inches apart, according to the size we expect them to 

 reach before they go into the field ; 5 inches is the most 

 common distance used. I think it better to set the 

 full distance apart at first, not to transplant a second 

 time. It is very important that this pricking out should 

 be done when the plants are young and small, though 

 many successful growers wait until they are larger. 

 The soil in which they are set, whether it be in boxes 

 or beds, should be composed of about three parts gar- 

 den loam, two parts well-rotted stable manure and one 

 part of an equal mixture of sand and leaf mold, though 

 the proportion of sand used should be increased if 

 the garden loam is clayey. The soil in the seed-boxes 

 or in the beds, when the seedlings are taken up, should 

 be in such condition, and the plants be handled in 

 such a way that nearly all the roots, carrying with 

 them many particles of soil, are saved. The plants 

 should be set a little, and but a little, deeper than they 

 stood in the seed-box and the soil so pressed about the 



