180 
disease. The same purpose is at times attained by spraying the 
beds with a solution of sulphate of iron. 
Pruntna THE Tomato. 
If large-sized, early tomatoes are required, the plants should 
either be forced and planted out early, or sown towards the end of 
August, and protected from frost by means of a light mulching. 
Before planting out, clip all leaves off except the top bud ; 
this will save their energy and cause them to grow quicker. 
One stalk only is allowed to grow, and lateral leaf shoots pinched 
off, the terminal shoot alone being allowed to remain. The fruit- 
bearing laterals are left on the plant, and soon set to fruit. 
The plant is trained either along short stakes or along a trellis, 
made of wire stretched between two short posts stuck at each end 
of the rows. This will keep the plants off the ground, and make 
the operations of spraying and picking easier. The tomato rot 
is not so severe on staked vines as on plants crawling over the 
damp ground, whilst by training the plants it is easier to get at 
the eut worms and the green caterpillars with arsenical baits and 
sprays. After a while a few leaf laterals are allowed to grow, if 
it is feared that the crop might be injured by sun-burn. Large- 
sized and early tomatoes will thus be obtained. For home use the 
tomato plant is seldom pruned. It bears enormously, but the fruit 
is smaller and somewhat later in ripening. 
Successful tomato growers in the vicinity of Perth cannot com- 
pete in the early market with tomatoes grown around Northampton 
and farther north on the Gascoyne. In the cooler districts the 
expense of sheltering very early tomatoes against frost is so great 
that growers find the mid-season and late kinds more profitable, 
yielding as they do heavy crops and offering a large turnover. 
Dwarf Champion is a favourite kind. It is compact in habit, 
the plant growing stiff and upright with very thick and short-jointed 
stems, and can be planted as close as 3 x 3. It crops well and does, 
owing to the small amount of space required between the plants, 
vield more to the acre. It has a firm, sound skin, is fleshy and of 
good flavour. Uulike most other varieties, it has a minimum of 
vines. 
SUMMER PRUNING AND THINNING OF FRUIT. 
As generally understood, pruning is an operation performed in 
the winter time, the object of which is the shaping of the plant, the 
adjustment of its wood and of its fruit-bearing capacity, and the 
easier management of such operations as cultivation, spraying, and 
dressing of the trees and vines, and gathering the fruit. In the 
summer months, however, the attention given to the plants for the 
purposes already named are supplemented by operations which are 
spoken of as “summer pruning.” In its proper sense, summer 
pruning consists of pinching and disbudding. 
