332 
Garden Work 
TOMATO SLEEPING DISEASE 
This is a terrible disease, and causes great damage 
where Tomatoes are grown extensively in the same houses 
year after year. Market gardeners who are almost com- 
pelled to grow their Tomatoes in this way suffer most; 
but, as the loss is so considerable, it would be better, in 
their case, to grow other, though perhaps less remunera- 
tive, crops in the houses for a few seasons until the 
disease was entirely stamped out. Great care should 
then be taken not to get the disease introduced into 
their houses again. This is a rather difficult matter 
where the seed has to be bought, as seed from diseased 
plants will produce diseased seedlings. But this could 
be overcome by demanding a guarantee that the crop 
from which the seed was taken was free from disease; if 
this cannot be given, seed should be procured elsewhere. 
The disease generally first attacks the root, the my- 
celium making its way right into the centre of the root, 
gradually working its way up to the stem. The plants 
then droop and have a sleepy appearance, hence its name. 
In a short time the stem just above the soil becomes 
visibly affected. It is covered with a whitish substance, 
which, on close examination under the microscope, is 
seen to consist of little fruiting branches, which in turn 
are branched, each branch bearing a spore at its tip. 
When these spores are matured they fall off and ger- 
minate on the soil, sending out hyphae in all directions. 
Wherever these come into contact with young rootlets 
they enter into their tissue, and thence to the older roots 
and stems, ultimately producing spores again. 
