Tomatoes. 355 



facing due east a by no means ideal position. Most of the 

 fruit had been gathered from the bottom bunches before the 

 photograph was taken. The plants were well-fed and the fruit 

 came of good marketable size, averaging about six to the pound. 

 Supreme would probably prove more satisfactory than Sunrise 

 on light soils unless the plants were abundantly supplied with 

 food and moisture. 



Manures : Of late years the Tomato, like its near relative 

 the Pdtato, has show an increasing susceptibility to attack 

 from fungoid diseases, and crops grown in the open-air are 

 now almost as liable to be ravaged by the potato disease, 

 phytophthora infestans, as is the potato crop itself. This 

 tendency has naturally engaged the attention of many persons 

 more or less expert in Tomato culture, with the result that 

 some have condemned the use of farmyard manure in the 

 preparation for the crop, attributing to it a softening of the 

 tissues of the plant which renders it more vulnerable to attack, 

 and have advocated the use of artificial fertilizers alone, to the 

 exclusion of natural manures. With this conclusion we cannot 

 agree. That a luxuriant, sappy growth is highly objectionable 

 there is not the slightest doubt; not only because it invites 

 disease but also because it is unfruitful. It must be remembered, 

 however, that farmyard manure produces this result only when 

 it is lavishly used in a fresh rank condition, or when the soil is 

 very loose, and that the same soft growth is just as readily 

 brought about by the injudicious use of concentrated nitro- 

 genous fertilizers; thus the mischief is seen to lie not so much 

 in the material used as in the method of its application. 



From the experience derived from a large number of practical 

 experiments in manuring for the Tomato crop, extending over 

 many years, the writer has arrived at the following definite 

 conclusions: (1) Heavy crops of Tomatoes cannot be obtained 

 unless the plants are supplied with -'an abundance of food ; 

 (2) potash in some form is indispensable to both weight and 

 quality in the fruit ; (3) although good crops may be obtained 

 by the use of artificials alone, especially when the soil is already 

 in "good heart," the best crops are invariably obtained when 

 these are used to supplement a moderate dressing of farmyard 

 manure ; (5) farmyard manure should always be applied in a 



