TOMATOES 3 



conditions are the bugbear, for it is during spells of cold, dull 

 weather that all the ills the tomato is subject to, and they are 

 many, gather their forces together for the attack. Only those 

 plants which are in perfect health can successfully resist them. 

 We lay it down as an axiom that from its very earliest days 

 a tomato plant should be studied and treated with a view to 

 making it disease-resisting. In other words, it should be 

 fortified by rude health, not gross, but sturdily vigorous, short- 

 jointed, tough in fibre, healthy of root. Never a weakling 

 should be planted, and the grower, when planting, should be 

 perfectly ruthless in rejecting any plants that are not absolutely 

 " top hole." Yes, we know that the tomato possesses remarkable 



FIG. 2. A Good Type of Tomato House 



powers of recovery, that even the weakest of plants may 

 eventually develop a strong growth, but we are out to take no 

 risks, and there will remain an inherent weakness which may 

 develop when the plant has reached a critical stage, and spoil it. 

 In this respect, plants are very like human beings ; we can 

 draw a very close analogy without trespassing on the imagination. 

 Have we not known in our time more than one young person 

 who, a victim to tuberculosis and apparently destined to an 

 early death, has almost by a miracle suddenly blossomed into 

 health and taken his place in the world ? We have seen him 

 put on flesh and inches, his countenance ruddy with seeming 

 health, and then all at once these appearances have proved 

 but counterfeits behind which the insidious disease has pursued 

 its deadl^ work. 



