THE TOMATO. 



337 



is usually an expensive undertaking. Mortar 

 rubbish, burnt earth and ashes, sand, leaf-soil, 

 and such like, when freely mixed with heavy 

 soils, improve their character considerably. 



Manures. — Various fertilizers have been sug- 

 gested for Tomatoes, and most authorities are 

 agreed that a too free use of animal manures is 

 liable to promote a luxuriant, disease-inviting 

 growth of plant, and in retentive soils especially 

 they ought to be somewhat sparingly used. 



American experts are mostly in favour of 

 chemical manures, and exhaustive series of 

 experiments have demonstrated the fact that 

 it pays better to use certain mixtures at a 

 fixed rate at planting-time than to distribute a 

 similar quantity over a period of two or three 

 months. Nitrate of soda and sulphate of am- 

 monia, as previously intimated, act quickly, 

 and if a full dressing is given at one time, 

 a portion of it is liable to be washed away 



Fig. 1115.— Tomato— Best of AIL 



before the plants can avail themselves of it, 

 and this means so much waste of a valuable 

 manure. Special mixtures for Tomatoes are 

 to be obtained from various vendors at reason- 

 able prices, and if these are applied according 

 to the directions given with them no mistake 

 will be made. Those who prefer to buy and 

 mix their own manures are referred to the 

 formula already given (p. 333), using the 

 mixture at the rate of about 12 lbs. per square 

 rod, or roughly, 6 ozs. to the square yard 

 of ground. For the more clayey, retentive 

 soils sulphate of ammonia may be substituted 

 for nitrate of soda, and lighter dressings all 

 round are desirable in the case of soils not 

 previously cropped with Tomatoes. Where 

 animal manures have been frequently applied 

 rather freely, this might well be withheld for 

 one season, and a surface-dressing of newly- 

 slaked lime, at the rate of half a bushel to a 

 vol. ii. 



square rod, given by way of economy, and as 

 a corrective of acidity. 



Training. — As a rule Tomatoes produce the 

 heaviest crops when trained up the roof near 

 the glass; but a far greater number of plants 

 can be found room for, and a much greater 

 weight of fruit be had, by planting in rows 

 across a house, and either providing each plant 

 with a bamboo stake, or else twisting them 

 round strings secured to pegs in the ground or 

 to the stem of the plant and to the roof. It 

 may here be added that the durable bamboos 

 are the best in the long run, though they may 

 seem a little expensive at the outset. Crowd- 

 ing the plants is a great mistake. When 

 planted 12 inches to 14 inches apart, in rows 

 2 feet or so apart, the crops set well for a 

 time, but eventually the plants smother and 

 rob each other, and the fruits in consequence 

 are light in weight and poor in quality. The 



63 



