September 19, 1878. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
WEEKLY CALENDAR. 
Day | Day Average sun | sun | Clock eDay, 
5 % aR mia) Ss 8 oon Moon | Moon’s 
rin Week SEPTEMBER 19—25, 1878. oCrLD er aNaLe ea Rises. Sets. Rises. | Sets. Age petore oan 
Day. |Night.)Mean.| h. m.| h. m.| h. m.| h. m]! Days m,. &. 
19 TH Twilight ends 8.3 P.M. 67.0 45.4 56.2 5 43 6 5 9 22 2° 19 ¢ 6 16 | 262 
20 F Faber died, 1702. 66.9 43.9 55.4 5 44 6H 2 | LOY :29. i a 23 6 37 | 263 
21 Ss 66.3 45.0 55.7 5 46 6 Oj 11 48 3 43 24 6 58 | 264 
22 SUN | 14 SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 66.6 45.4 | 56.0 5 48 5 658 | morn. 4 9 25 7 19 | 265 
23 M Boerhave died, 1738. 66.3 46.0 | 56.1 5 49 5 55 | 1 14) 4 30 26 7 40 | 266 
24. TU Crystal Palace Show opens. 65.7 44.7 | 55.2 5 51 5 53 2 43 4 48 27 BF ALN 267; 
25 WwW 66.8 46.8 | 56.8 5 53 5 61 4 12 5.4 28 8 21 | 268 
From observations taken near London during forty-three years, the average day temperature of the week is 66.8° ; and its night temperature 
3°, 
| 
TOMATO CULTURE. | 
| 
HE Tomato is a vegetable which is not grown | 
by every person who has a garden, because | 
there are many persons who do not know | 
how to use it, and others, again, think it | 
difficult to cultivate. The first obstacle may | 
easily be overcome, as full directions as to | 
the best way of using this wholesome vege- 
table may be learned out of any shilling cookery 
book, and as to the culture of the plants, that | 
too is simple. They may be grown in two ways—z.e., 
under glass and in the open air. In cold districts | 
some seasons they do not succeed very well out of 
doors, but this is often more the fault of the cultivator than 
the tenderness of the plant. 
In raising young plants some propagate them from cut- 
tings, others from seed. Both ways may be successfully 
practised. Now is a good time to take cuttings from old 
plants. Place six or eight of them in a 6-inch pot, root 
them in a gentle heat, and afterwards keep them closely 
pinched in, but growing in a moderate temperature until 
about the new year, when they may be potted off singly 
and allowed to grow to form early fruiting plants. This is 
an excellent plan of retaining a good stock and securing 
early fruit in a simple way. Plants treated like this and 
properly cared for will produce fruit throughout the whole 
season. We are cutting fruit from plants now that were 
bearing in the month of April. These were raised from 
seed sown about February 1st. 
Where plants are raised from seed sown early in spring 
for fruiting during the summer and autumn they should be 
treated at first like tender annuals as regards temperature, 
and their after requirements are simple. They will grow 
almost without care, but it is when they are just arriving 
at a fruit-bearing condition that they require attention. 
When the plants are allowed to grow as they like and 
make as much wood as possible they will never bear well. 
If they are to have a fair chance of fruiting they must be 
very closely pinched-in. This applies to their culture at 
all times and in all places ; it is indeed the mainspring to 
success. We have plants now bearing two and three dozen 
fruits planted out against a south wall, and there is hardly 
an inch of growth on them that is not bearing fruit. Had 
they been allowed to ramble about, in all probability we 
should not have secured a single fruit. From the time 
the first fruit is formed we begin cutting off the side shoots, 
and ever afterwards they are kept closely cut-in to the 
bunches of flowers. When pienty of fruit sets on the main 
stem we prefer growing them with a single stem, allowing 
no side branches to grow; but when side growths are 
allowed they are cut in similarly to pinching the main stem. 
Our crop of Tomatoes in pots has been the subject of 
general remark this season, and yet we have only three 
pots of them. They are growing against the back wall 
of a cool vinery, and each plant covers a space of about 
12 square feet. Many side shoots have been taken from 
the centre one, but all of them have been pinched-in to the 
flowers, sometimes nothing but the flowers being left on 
No. 912.—VOL. XKXV., NEW SERIES, 
| 
the stems, and in this way each plant in a 12-inch pot has 
produced about a hundred fruits. This I consider a pro- 
fitable crop, as nothing else would have come to maturity 
on the back wall under the shade of the Vines. When 
grown in pots the plants should be potted in a rich mixture 
of about half loam and half cow dung. Some object to 
growing Tomatoes in rich soil, thinking it makes them run 
too much to wood. It does make them do this, but a suc- 
cession of fine fruit cannot be secured unless there is some 
good stuff at the roots to produce them, and overluxuriance 
can always be checked by cutting off the shoots and throw- 
ing the strength into the fruit. Strong doses of liquid 
manure should also be given those in pots. In the open 
air they should be planted in moderately rich soil, and 
here they may also be given manure water about this time 
as the crop demands considerable nourishment. We have 
grown Tomatoes in pots trained to a single stake, but this 
is not such a profitable way of cultivating as that above 
indicated. 
Out of doors there are generally many green Tomatoes 
which fail to colour before the plants are cut down by the 
frost : all such should be cut off with the stems attached, 
and if they are hung up in a dry room or warm glass house 
they will ripen and give a supply of fruit throughout the 
winter.—A KircHEN GARDENER. 
OBJECTS OF HORTICULTURAL INTEREST IN 
AND NEAR PARIS. 
Now that the principal shows in England are mostly over 
many of the gardening community will doubtless be wend- 
ing their way to Paris to see the department of horticulture 
in connection with the Exposition at the Trocadéro, and 
especially the exhibition of fruits, which opened on the 
16th inst. and continues until the middle of October ; and 
as all may not know the additional points and places of 
interest horticulturally worth seeing, we subjoin a list of 
some of the more important. Secs ae 
The Jardin des Plantes, south of the Seine in an easterly 
direction beyond the Halles-aux-Vins, in addition to con- 
taining the best-arranged botanical garden in Hurope, has 
excellent botanical, mineralogical, and anthropological 
museums. There is a good collection of Pears, and the 
officinal and economic plants are very interesting. Visitors 
will find Professor Decaisne, M. Albert, jardinier-en-chef, 
and the staff most courteous to English horticulturists ; and 
pages might be written about the advantages furnished, 
almost gratuitously, to students of science and natural his- 
tory of all nations from this mine of information, and few 
know what obligations foreigners are under in this respect 
to the liberality of the French nation. The garden may be 
reached by omnibus. 
The Jardin d’Acclimatation in the Bois de Boulogne, 
beyond the Are de |’Etoile, contains much that will interest 
the horticulturist; and among the objects is a large test 
collection of Vines planted in the open. 
The Jardin de la Ville de Paris at La Muette, beyond the 
Trocadéro, is a vast manufactory and store for plants used 
at the municipal entertainments and in the deccration of 
NO 1564—VoOL. LX., OLD SERIES. 
