298 GARDEXIXG FOR PROFIT. 



Southern States, where it attains nearly the weight of 

 the Nansemond ; it requires a longer season than that 

 variety, and is not so suitable for the North. It is of 

 excellent flavor and more free from stringiness than any 

 other sort. 



T01&A.TO. (Lycopersicum esculentum.) 



This vegetable is one of the most important of all gar- 

 den products ; hundred of acres are now planted with it 

 in the vicinity of all large cities, and the facility with 

 which it is managed, places it readily under the control of 

 the least experienced. It is now grown here almost en- 

 tirely by those who grow Peas, Potatoes, Melons, and 

 other crops of the "farm gardens/' as our market gardens 

 proper are too highly enriched and much too limited in 

 extent to render the cultivation of the Tomato profitable. 

 To produce early crops, the seed must be sown in hot-beds 

 or forcing-pits, about ten weeks before the plants may 

 be safely put in the open ground. Thus, in this dis- 

 trict, we sow in the hot-bed about the first week in 

 March ; in April the plants are fit to be set out, at a 

 distance of four or five inches apart, in another hot-bed. 

 They are grown there (proper attention being given to 

 the hot-beds, as directed under that head) until the middle 

 of May, when it is safe to place them in the open ground. 

 They are planted, for early crops, on light sandy soil, at a 

 distance of three feet apart, in hills, in which a good 

 shovelful of rotted manure has been mixed. On heavy 

 soils, which are not suited for an early crop, they should 

 be planted four feet apart. Some attach great importance 

 to topping the leading shoo-t of the Tomato, so that it 

 will branch, arguing that by this means we get an earlier 



