Tomatoes. — How to Train and Prune Them. 233 



equivalent, and fill up with good rich compost of equal parts of loam, 

 sand, and well-rotted manure, in which plunge the bulbs nearly to their 

 tips. Of course a space is to be left for watering when gi-owth has 

 commenced. If a hot-bed or other bottom heat is at command, plunge 

 the pots to the rim and cover the plants from the light, for by this, 

 root growth is induced in advance of foliage, thus securing stret?gth. 

 Give only sufficient water to j^reserve moisture until foliage appears, 

 then i-emove the shade, and gradually increase the watering until the 

 blossom stalk begins to spin up, when a full supply should be given. 

 Liquid manure twice a week will not be too high feed for them. 

 But little further care is necessary, except to divest them of oflsets, as 

 befox'e directed, until the approach of cold nights, when they should be 

 removed to the conservatory, or other warm quarters. By shading from 

 full sunlight when in bloom, they, like all other delicate flowers, may 

 be prolonged in their season of beauty. Bloom may be expected irt 

 about four months from the time of potting, and such bloom as wilL 

 well repay all extra care or trouble. 



TOMATOES. — HOW TO TRAIN AND PRUNE THEM. 



By Charles Robinson, New Haven, Conn. 



Of this healthful esculent there are numberless varieties. In vciy 

 city garden, those with abundant fruit, of large size, fine form, entire 

 solidity, and the highest flavor, are alone worthy of a place. 



After years of careful trial, the two varieties which find the most favor 

 with the ladies of my family are Maupay's and Robinson's (my own) 

 " Giant." The latter, some years since, had such a reputation in the 

 wide West, that I was assured by cultivators of the highest character 

 there, that I might travel through that entire region frce^ if only I 

 would permit myself to be known as the " Tomato Man." Its only lack 

 of perfection consists in the fact that the fruit is not always as smooth 

 as I could wish ; and yet, upon the Darwinian theory of selection, it 

 ought long since to have become fairer and richer than the finest 

 Havana orange. The Trophy I have never tested, but it promises 

 finel3^ 



My garden, of some fifty-five by two hundred feet, has been regular- 

 ly trenched every season for more than twenty years, and abundantly 

 enriched with the most approved fertilizers. The soil is now three 

 feet or more in depth, and as no weed during all that time has been 



