TOMATO, OR LOVE-APPLE 



711 



j out the point of that also when a 

 i truss of blossoms has been evolved, 

 I and so on till the shoot reaches the 

 I. top of the house. The close pinching 

 I must be persisted in to throw the 

 I strength into the plant ; and a few 

 of the main leaves may be removed 

 when the fruit begins to ripen, to 

 let in the sun to colour them. As 

 the bottom fruit begin to ripen and 

 ] are taken off for use, a shoot here 

 ■ and there may be permitted to grow, 

 and these in turn will develop 

 blossoms, when, if the same pinching 

 process be adopted, a successional 

 crop will be started which will 

 prolong the season." * 



Tomatoes without Manure. — 

 Mr. Muir is inclined to think we 

 j use too much manure in the case of 

 f Tomatoes. " Almost every one who 

 has anything to say on the culture 

 recommends at least one part of the 

 compost to be manure from the 

 stable or cowshed, and plenty of 

 plants, and fruit too, are produced 

 under this treatment, but it must be 

 owned that there is also a great deal 

 j of superfluous wood, and fruits in 

 ) many instances are often neither so 

 perfect in form, large in size, nor so 

 numerous as they might have been. 

 Three parts of the time spent in 

 cultivating Tomatoes are often 

 devoted to cutting back and thinning 

 out the shoots, work which surely 

 could not be over and above good 

 for the plants. The majority of 

 Tomatoes make a great deal of un- 

 necessary wood before any fruits 

 are formed, and many of them grow 

 so freely that they do not fruit until 

 their feeding supplies have become 

 somewhat exhausted. My idea of 

 a good bearing Tomato-plant is one 

 which begins to fruit about 10 in. 

 from the ground, and continues to 

 bear closely as far up as the culti- 

 vator chooses to lead the main stems. 

 The fruit should be numerous, and 



* Defoliating Tomatoes, see p. 773 

 Tomato Diseases, see pp. 780, 781. 



the superfluous growths in no way 

 predominating. It is, however, a 

 difficult matter to have Tomatoes 

 in this condition where much 

 manure is used, as the manure has 

 a tendency to induce the plants to 

 make wood rather than fruit. For 

 some years we have been using less 

 and less manure in Tomato growing, 

 and in several instances we have 

 dispensed with it altogether, and 

 found the crops to be altogether 

 more satisfactory than hitherto. 

 The growths were short and robust, 

 and the fruit formed in large quan- 

 tities and swelled off and coloured 

 beautifully. Early in summer we 

 are in the habit of planting a 

 Tomato here and there along the 

 walls wherever a small vacancy 

 occurs, and before planting we used 

 to fork in a quantity of manure to 

 assist them, but now no manure is 

 employed, and the crops are good. 

 The very poorest of soil without any 

 manure might not answer, but or- 

 dinary potting turf will be found to 

 grow them to the highest state of 

 perfection." 



Mr. Muir holds that, even in 

 England and Wales, "Tomatoes, 

 when properly managed, are far 

 more prolific in the open air than 

 under glass. They begin to bloom 

 and fruit almost at the ground, and 

 the stems throw out bunches of 

 flowers every few inches and yield 

 very fine crops. On some of our 

 clusters we have counted as many 

 as twenty, and where they were 

 thinned out to single fruits, some 

 have weighed 14 ounces each. The 

 flavour, too, of those grown and 

 ripened during the harvest time is 

 much superior to that of those 

 ripened under glass, especially in 

 a close atmosphere. In short, open- 

 air Tomatoes are so good and easily 

 produced, that I would advise all 

 who have a wall with any vacant 

 Tomatoes for Winter use, see p. 774. 



