626 
THE TROPICAL AGfilCULTTTJST. March 1, 1900. 
ON TOMATOES, 
[by an expeht.] 
" LvcoPEEsicuM EscuLENTUM ' otherwise tomato, 
sometimes called love apple, a, singular name sure y. 
Most readers doubtless know the tomato belonj^s to 
that brilliant natural order the Solauaoeae, than which, 
very few natural orders are of greater ecoaomic 
importance. The potato, tomato and the brinjal will 
be quite sufficient to fix its great importiice to 
mankind, and then there is the chili: by the fates 
what would India be without its chilies? Now the 
tomato is just oue of those excellent thing* that 
somehow or another India is very baCkwird in growing : 
and of all countries on the face of the earth, the 
ooe it ought to ba abundantly grown in, by reason 
of its excellent and very well recognitsed action on the 
liver and spleen, and general dietetic value. Personally, 
and notwithstanding Dickon's famous tomato sauce, 
I am of opinion the cooking of the tomato is a 
mistake. Plucked when just barely ripe, cut up and 
eaten just as one would apples, the tomato is delicious, 
with a fine, firm and crisp fiavour, and then in the 
form of a well concocted salad it is matchless. But 
it is important the tomato bs gathered when just 
barely ripe, nicely coloured and no more. When 
quite ripa it rapidly developes a characteristically 
mawkish flavour that is not nearly so agreeable, at 
least to my taste, which is a long ana extensive one 
with tomtoes. Furthermore, it is good practice to 
gather tomatoes, not more than two-thirds ripe, as it 
greatly helps heavily laden plants to perfect the 
entire crop. And they finish the ripening just 
as well off the plants, to the cosiderable 
relief of the remainder. As a proof of what tomatoes 
will do in this way, I may say as I write I have about 
u maund slung up to the roof of my room, a few 
beauties of perfect form, would weigh over a pound 
each, but they are green — there is just a suspicion of 
whitish coloured green, which is the first intimation 
of colour coming on: under the simple infitieaoe of 
the fire in the room, they will slowly colour. I 
cannot say the flavour will be so good as when 
allowed to two-thirds ripen out of doors. But when 
I commenced to write this paper there was frost and 
ice out of doors, and so a knowledge of this ripening 
of tomatoes off the plants, enabled me to enjoy my 
mauad of tomatoes in spite of destroying frost and 
ice outside 
Now why on earth does not India produce at least 
one million mannds of tomatoes every year ? Why 
indeed a million raaunds, why not ten? It is easy 
of accomplishment if the" how to do it" is known 
and of that there shall be no excuse before I leave 
the subject. The tomato is one of those things that 
have fallen into the hands of the hybridiser and the 
raiser — and the hybridiser and raiser ia one of the most 
undoubted and greatest benefactors of his race ; and so 
it comes about that to-day we have not those ugly, rid- 
ged and furrowed, crumpied-up fruits of olden times, but 
on the contrary brilliant-coloured, beautifully formed 
fruits of perfect outline, handsome as exhibtion apples. 
The consumption of tomatoes for London alone goes 
into tons daily and one mammoth grower alone turns 
out some dozen tons a we»k and that too from glass 
structures, of which he had soma time ago consi- 
derably more than a hundred of great length. Now if 
we take into account the high cost of labour, the 
numerous rates and taxes and the great value of the 
land, which is no distance fropa London, and the 
considerable cost of such an array of glass structures, 
this one man alone must have spent enough to 
purchase many sqare miles of laud in India. And 
it pays too, not however by reason of long pi'ices, 
nothing of the kind, that is the point I wish to 
emphasiao — it is simply due in the main to the 
Bcieutfic culture, and the enormous crops ; such as one 
never sees in luilia. Hence I want to point the way 
for the fndi n (,';irilener to i^o and do likewise, with- 
out all the he»vy t:xpenditury of glass, high price labuur, 
&c ; and with tho model winter climate of India on the 
plains the tomato should be everywhere abnndant tind 
cheap and should pay th« producer and the cok- 
Eumer very well iuu<ed. 
I hear some reader sny '' Oh ! but anybody can grow 
torn it»eg " and that is quite true : they will grow tnem- 
selves, in fa t. if you only plant thorn — (hat however ig 
not the way to produce either quantity or quality ; 
and it is quantity combined with q'lality that pays 
in most things. We will therefore set aside blipshod 
methods, and come to a eimple yet scientific method that 
will give exceptionally fine fruits and plenty of them. 
VARIETIES. 
I may say at once the varieties are very nnmerODB, 
bnt by o meins so numerous as the peiusal of half a 
dozen seedsmen s catalogues would lead you to suppose. 
We all have our little failing4 and your aeedman is 
nothing lacking. Hence it comes that some tomato 
is one seedsman's " conqueror," another's " ne plus 
ultra," or Rubinson's •' Invincible," and as a simple 
matter of fact this tomato is Brown's, Smithn' and 
Robinson's leading line in tomatoes : a very fine thing 
you will find it described, and it is probably quite true ; 
but if you buy it from the three it is a hundred to one 
you will get one kind of tomato. Here is a practical 
illustration. Some eleven years ago a very fine tomato 
was brought out, called Empress of India; . I have 
grown that tomato ever since, and it is very fine : even 
today, brilliant in colour, beautifully shaped, and fine 
in quality, and large. Now I find some difficulty in 
finding Empress of India in the lists; it has undoubt- 
edly slipped out of a lot altogether, bnt another kind 
is pretty general and variously termed perfection : that 
I have grown and I find it simply my true friend Em- 
press of India Tomato, and about a quarter of a hun- 
dred of other kinds grown are largely synonymoaa. 
The tomato grower will do well therefore to select a 
real good type and stick to it, and prove the improve- 
ments so-called one or two at a time, and on no account 
be deluded into a multitude of varieties. 
SEED SOWIKe. 
Having made a good selection, sow in boses or pots« 
I find boxes much the best. The tomato is a consi- 
derable time in coming into fruiting from seedli ge, 
therefore sowing should be arranged for in good time, 
and the boxes may conveniently be about foar inches 
deep. Into the bos .-s put half an inch of drainage, 
such as cinders, and on this a couple uf inches of good 
garden soil, of a light sandy nature. Now make up a 
mixture of fine soil, and thoroughly decomposed man- 
ure and leaf soil in equal parts, mix all well together 
and fill in the boxes to with iu half a inch of the tops. 
Firm regularly and moderately, and make all perfectly 
level with a piece of planed board, and water down the 
soil. They are now ready for sowing, which shoold 
be done carefully. The tomato seed is a large one, 
and it will be much the best plant to place each seed 
separately about half an inch apart ; in this way 
every seed will have an individual chanae, and come 
up strong, much superior to a box sown at random, 
and generally much too thick. Ua^ing carefully placed 
the seed, sift some fine soil over it to depth of two- 
eighths of an inch, give another light watering, and 
transfer boxes to some dark warm place, until the 
seed has germinated, carefully watching the while 
that the soil in the boxes does not get dry. As 
soon as germination is seen to be ensning the boxes 
may be transferred to the open absolutely free 
from shade. 
PBICKING OFF THE SKEDLINOS. 
As soon as the seedlings are strong with a pair 
of good leases and another pair in progress, they 
should be pricked off into other boxes somewhat deeper. 
Ordinary kerosine boxes cut in half answer well. 
Here however the previous proceedings should be 
reversed as regards sail, and the rich mixture of 
manure, light sandy loam and leif should go into 
the box first, and there may with advantai^e be 
two-fourf s of manuie, one of leaf soil and one of 
loam to the depth of half the box, on top of this 
any good light friable garden ioil will do. Into this 
mixture, transplant the seedli ogs three inches apart 
