338 The Profitable Culture of Vegetables. 



are necessarily small and frequently drawn ; they are planted 

 out in cold soil from which the frost has but lately departed, 

 and in which the roots cannot work until the temperature rises 

 by several degrees. Thus they get a severe check, and no 

 appreciable growth is made for several weeks, the best part of 

 the summer being past before the plant has ripened any fruit. 

 A better method, and one calculated to bring a much greater 

 return for the outlay is to raise fewer plants, to grow them 

 under cool and airy conditions with ample space for develop- 

 ment and sturdy growth, and to harden them thoroughly 

 before they are planted out. This should not take place until 

 the soil is warm and the weather settled, so that the plants 

 will feel no check but will begin at once to grow away and to 

 form fruit. By following this course picking would begin much 

 earlier and the fruiting season would be lengthened by several 

 weeks, thus practically doubling the crop besides ensuring 

 higher average prices. The grower who gives his plants proper 

 attention may thus reasonably expect to receive a greater 

 return, and with more certainty, from half an acre of plants 

 than from one acre handled in the usual way. 



The Soil and its Preparation. The Tomato is not at all 

 particular as to soil. The writer has seen plantations bearing 

 excellent crops on soil which appeared to be almost pure sand, 

 and on the other hand has seen acres of plants literally weighed 

 down with fruit growing on heavy clay land. What is most 

 needed in the soil, apart from manurial applications, is thorough 

 working to a good depth, compactness, and perfect drainage. 

 Stagnant water about the roots of a Tomato plant is fatal ; the 

 roots decay and the plant speedily collapses. 



On light or medium soils, cropped intensively and manured 

 and cultivated accordingly, the Tomato may follow any crop 

 which is cleared away soon enough to allow the soil to be dug 

 over before the plants are set out. The digging should be 

 followed immediately by levelling and rolling. The preceding 

 crop will probably have drawn heavily upon and considerably 

 reduced the soil moisture, and it will therefore be imperative 

 in such a case to give frequent copious waterings as soon as 

 the weather gets hot, and to check evaporation from the soil 

 by surface stirrings or mulches. 



