TOMATOES. 117 



tatoes may be injured. It is very important, however, to 

 make the ground as mallow and loose as possible, and to 

 keep the plants entirely free from weeds. Plant in rows 

 forty-two inches apart and twenty-four inches apart in 

 the row. Or plant in hills, three feet apart each way. 

 A tablespoonful of superphosphate to each hill, mixed 

 with the soil at the time the potato plants are set out, will 

 favor the ripening of the crop, and improve the quality, 

 The cultivation is similar to that required for the com- 

 mon, or as the southerners call it, the "Irish" potato. 

 In damp, growing weather, the vines lying on the ground 

 throw out roots, and it is best to check this tendency by 

 occasionally moving the vines. If you keep working 

 about the vines as much as is desirable with the hoe to 

 destroy weeds, and give the plants a little fresh soil, 

 nothing more will usually be required. 



The variety generally cultivated at the North is the 

 Nansemond. 



TOMATOES. 



For home use people generally depend on buying To- 

 mato plants rather than to be at the trouble of raising 

 them themselves. So far as this single crop is con- 

 cerned, the plan is a good one, but there are plants 

 which are all the better for being started in a hot- 

 bed or in boxes in the house, and the more of these 

 things you have to attend to, the less likely will you be 

 to neglect them. I would, therefore, recommend all 

 young gardeners to raise their own tomato plants. 

 And all the more so because, should they fail, they 

 can readily buy plants. If they succeed in raising the 

 plants, all the better. If they fail, none the worse. 

 You can raise far better plants than are generally to be 

 found in the market. 



