TOMATO. 257 



nations or winter lettuce. The house should be warm 

 and very bright, with at least 5 or 6 feet of head room 

 above each bench (pages 153, 8). 



The temperature for tomatoes should be about 60 to 

 65 at night, and about 75 at day (page 154). 



The soil should be rich, but the manure which is used 

 in the earth should be well rotted and broken down. 

 Rich, rather loose garden loam, to which a fourth or fifth 

 of the bulk of fine manure is added, makes an ideal soil. 

 Liquid manure may need to be applied when the plants 

 come into bearing (pages 154, 53). 



Tomatoes should always have bottom heat, unless, 

 perhaps, for the late spring or early summer crop. They 

 are grown in both benches and boxes, nearly all com- 

 mercial growers preferring the former because of their 

 cheapness. The benches contain from 6 to 8 inches of 

 soil (page 157). 



House tomatoes are grown both from seeds and cut- 

 tings, and both methods are in common use. When 

 made from strong, healthy shoots the cuttings are prob- 

 ably in every way as good as seedlings, and they usually 

 bear sooner ; but cuttings are likely to perpetuate a weak- 

 ness of a plant, and they are apt to give only indifferent 

 results when taken from old and partially exhausted 

 plants. On the whole, seedlings are probably preferable 

 (page 155). 



The second crop of the season (coming on in late 

 winter) may be obtained either from new seedling plants, 

 from cuttings, from a shoot trained out from the old 

 stump, or by burying the old stem and allowing the tip 

 to continue to grow. Seedlings are usually preferable, as 

 indicated in the last paragraph (page 166). 



From four to five months are required, after seed-sow- 

 ing, to secure ripe fruit. Seeds are usually sown in flats, 

 and the young plants should be handled at least twice 

 (preferably into pots) before they are put into permanent 

 quarters (page 155). 



