TRAINING AND WATERING. l6l 



older leaves or to cut them in two near the middle in 

 order to let in light. As the fruit sets the leaves near the 

 base of the plant begin to die, and they should be picked 

 off. Healthy plants in full bearing are often bare of 

 leaves for the first 2 feet. The fruit is borne on one side 

 of the stem, and it is a common notion that the plants 

 must be so placed that this side of the stem shall be 

 toward the sun. This precaution is entirely unnecessary. 



When the plants are set in benches, at distances of 2 

 or 3 feet, two or three shoots may be trained out upon 

 diverging strings, in fan-shaped fashion. If the fan stands 

 north and south it will probably interfere least with the 

 light. Tomatoes are sometimes trained along under the 

 roof as rafter plants, but this system is not adapted to 

 commercial purposes, as it darkens the house so much 

 that few plants can be grown, and the rafter plants are 

 likely to suffer from cold. 



As soon as the fruit becomes heavy the largest clusters 

 will need to be held up. A sling of raffia is caught over 

 a joint of the plant and is passed under the middle of the 

 cluster, as seen in Fig. 52 (at a, b, c, page 160), which 

 shows the bearing portion of a good average plant. 



Upon very strong vines the clusfers sometimes 

 "break," or push out a shoot from the end. This shoot 

 should be cut off. Tomatoes upon clusters where this 

 abnormal shoot was allowed to grow were generally 

 smaller and more irregular than upon clipped shoots. 



Watering. During all the early growth of the plant 

 the atmosphere may be kept moist, particularly in sunny 

 days, when it is customary to wet down the walks. Care 

 must be taken in watering. It is best to soak the soil 

 pretty thoroughly at each watering, yet it should not be 

 drenched. Careless watering usually leaves the surface 

 wet, while the under soil remains dry. This must be 

 avoided. In midwinter we water our plants thoroughly 

 about twice a week, giving no water directly to them be- 

 tween times. If the red spider should attack the plants, 



