348 The Profitable Culture of Vegetables. 



circumstances. The plants should be gone over very frequently 

 so that they may be rigidly confined to the one or two main 

 branches they were originally started with; by doing so the 

 strength of the plant is concentrated on making, swelling and 

 maturing fruit, instead of being dissipated and wasted in 

 making growth which is ultimately cut out and thrown on the 

 ground. Not only that, but plants which are thinly disposed 

 so that the wind can blow freely through the foliage and the sun 

 shine on every part, dry quickly even after the heaviest rain, 

 and make a firmer and healthier growth, so that they are in 

 the best condition to resist attacks of disease. 



Tying must be regularly attended to. When each plant 

 has a separate stake the first tie should be made as soon as 

 planting is completed and afterwards for every 6 or 8 inches of 

 growth. Good quality raffia is the most suitable material to 

 use for this purpose. In tying leave space for the stem to swell, 

 which it does very rapidly, but do not make the tie so slack 

 as to allow the plant to swing about in every wind. When the 

 plants are supported by wires the stems cannot, of course, 

 be tied until they have grown long enough to reach from one 

 wire to the next, and this is all the more reason for not allowing 

 them to swing free for an unnecessary length of time. 



Stopping. In the first week of August the plants should be 

 " stopped " (that is, the main stem is cut off and no further 

 growth permitted) at the last fully developed truss of flowers. 

 In a cold wet autumn the last trusses will even then probably 

 fail to mature, but on the other hand in a warm genial autumn, 

 or " Indian summer," such as we are frequently favoured with, 

 most of the fruit on the last trusses will ripen and thus make a 

 considerable addition to the total crop.v When the plants are 

 stopped later than this the growth is made at the expense of the 

 weight and early maturity of the fruit already set. After the 

 plants are stopped, side shoots are pushed out with increased 

 vigour ; at that time the fruit is ripening rapidly, and all hands 

 are liable to be engaged in gathering and packing, so that the 

 removal of these late shoots is apt to be neglected, but this 

 should be carefully guarded against, or the plants become a 

 thicket of shoots, and get in a really worse condition than if 

 they had never been stopped at all. 



