870 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ May 7, 1S85. 
a garden or a wall may grow them successfully in summer. ¥e have 
tried them in the open in Scotland, as well as in the more sunny south, 
and in both instances they proved remunerative. Indeed we never trouble 
to grow Tomatoes under glass during July, August, and September, as 
they come so freely in the open then that we depend on them entirely for 
a supply. We have tried them planted out in the open quarters, with only 
a stick to hold them up ; and although they did fairly well in this way, 
the plan was not so successful as growing them against a wall, and thi3 
is the way we advise them to be grown. A wall with a south or east 
aspect is the best. They will not do well facing the north or west. A 
sunny position is greatly enjoyed, and they are by no means out of place 
growing against the wall of a dwelling house, as they are very ornamental 
while in fruit. Flowering climbers may clothe part of the walls, but 
wherever there is a bare space, though it may only be a narrow strip 
12 inches wide, fill it with a Tomato plant. Almost every grower has 
given Tomatoes too much manure to root into, and we have grown them 
extensively in this way ; but to secure abundance of fruit and really 
magnificent crops no manure whatever should be mixed with the soil. 
We have been trying them without the manure, and find them succeed 
better. 
This season no dung will be used with the soil for our Tomato 
plants. Just no.v we have the finest spring crop in pots we ever possessed, 
aud they are growing in pure loam. In soil containing a large quantity 
of manure they grow much too freely, form too much superfluous wood, 
and not enough of fruit. This is the objection to manure, and it certainly 
is a very strong one. Without manure the plants do not grow so strongly, 
but they are more robust, the wood being very short-jointed and extremely 
fruitful. We use Beeson’s manure, and where a very long succession of 
superior fruits is desired this excellent manure is most satisfactory. It 
does not make the plants produce superfluous growths, but it affords 
substantial nourishment. Wherever the Tomato plants are to be planted 
take two or three wheelbarrowloads of soil from each position, and 
refill with pure loam, put a few ashes or something at the bottom to act 
as drainage, and where Beeson’s manure can be obtained add one peck of 
it to every three barrowloads of soil. 
Raising plants for open-air culture is a matter of much importance. 
It is difficult for many small growers to accomplish this, and it is sur¬ 
prising that no one advertises young plants ready for planting-out in May. 
Many would then grow them who do not now, and the demand would be 
sure to pay the raiser. Seed sown in a pot and placed in a warm pit 
or cold frame will germinate freely in April, and when the young plants 
are 3 inches high they should be placed singly into 3-inch pffs. Use 
loam only, and keep them close in the frame for a time, but do not draw 
them up tenderly, as they will succeed better when planted out if grown 
on hardy from the first. Plants grown in much heat and quite large now 
may also be placed out, but they must he well hardened previously, and 
most likely they will stand still so long during this operation that the 
little-late cool-grown ones will overtake them before JHy. From the 
middle to the end of May is a good time to place out hardened 
plants. They will start growing immediately, and supply ripe fruit in 
July. Put one plant in the centre of each heap of new soil, or one may be 
placed at each end. "Where no new soil can be procured plant them in 
the ordinary garden soil, but keep the dung away, and do not by any 
means give up the idea of growing them because no soil can be had of 
some special quality. Try them in any old material, and the results will 
be more gratifying than could be anticipated. Turn the plants out of the 
pots, let them well into the soil, press it firmly, and water thoroughly. 
Should the weather prove cold at night after planting hang some old bags 
over them, or stand a piece of board against each plant, but anything of 
this kind must be taken off during the day. As growth advances keep 
nailing up the leading shoots, but pinch all side shoots off as soon as they 
can be seen. Single stems always fruit much better than a number, and 
this way of restricting them has much to do with their successful culture. 
—A Kitchen Gardener. 
VIOLET CULTURE UNDER GLASS AND OUT OF 
DOORS. 
This being the proper time to prepare plants for yielding 
gatherings of the universally esteemed Violet from the middle 
of September next to the following April from plants in pits and 
frames, when the supply may be prolonged for three or four 
months by plants occupying south and north aspects, a few 
remarks as to the best method of procedure to be followed with 
a view to securing the best possible results may therefore be 
acceptable to your readers. I have grown Violets somewhat 
largely aud successfully in various ways during the last fourteen 
years; but the most satisfactory results have been achieved by 
following a course of treatment which I tried last year for the 
first time, I will therefore confine my remarks to that mode of 
culture, which is as follows 
Select from the plants which have been flowering all the 
winter as many of the strongest young plants having the most 
plump and firm crowns as may be required for yielding gather¬ 
ings of flowers throughout the autumn, winter, and spring 
months. Shorten their roots, and then pot them singly in 3-inch 
pots in a compost consisting of three parts of light sandy loam 
and one of leaf mould, making the soil moderately firm about 
the roots in potting. Then stand the pots on coal ashes in a pit 
or frame near the glass in a sunny situation, give sufficient water 
through a medium-sized rose to settle the soil, and shade the 
plants from bright sunshine for a few days until the roots have 
taken to the soil, when they should be fully exposed to the sun, 
and be kept well supplied with moisture at the roots and over¬ 
head, the latter by syringing the plants heavily with clean water 
morning and afternoon, at closing time, about four o’clock. The 
plants, however, should have abundance of air during the in¬ 
terval from admitting it in the morning—about half past seven 
o’clock—and stopping it in the afternoon, and the runners be 
kept persistently pinched so as to concentrate all energies of the 
individual plants to the formation and consolidation of large 
floriferous crowns. They should then be planted within a few 
inches of the glass in pits or frames in rows G inches asunder, 
and the same distance between the plants from centre to centre 
in the rows, and the same depth in the soil; an admixture of 
rather more than four parts loam and one of leaf soil, with a 
surfacing of Beeson’s manure scratched in with the rake prior 
to planting, the same depth as they were in the pots. The 
planting should be done before the roots become matted round 
the edge of the pots, and the soil should be made firm about 
them, and then be watered to settle it around the roots. The 
plants must be slightly shaded from bright sunshine for a few 
days until their roots have pushed into the new soil, after which 
time full exposure to the sun and syringing overhead on the 
evenings of bright days will, in addition to a free circulation of 
fresh air being admitted to the plants by removing the sashes, 
be congenial to their requirements. 
Plants thus treated are not only well established in their 
winter quarters and furnished with large well-ripened crowns, 
but actually produce flowers of the best description before those 
which had been planted in the ordinary way in the open at the 
same time had been even potted. By restricting root-action in 
the pot, together with proper treatment, good plump crowns are 
secured early in the season. 
Marie Louise is the variety we grow under g’ass, and mainly 
out of doors, and there is none to equal it for floriferousness, 
size, and colour of flower, or hardiness of constitution. The 
plants must never be allowed to suffer from dryness at the roots, 
and they will be much benefited by being watered occasionally 
with liquid manure after clear water has been applied, and with 
some of the latter the plants should afterwards be syringed to 
wash the foliage. After the plants get well established in the 
pots and frames runners will push freely from their bases. 
Three of the strongest of these may be retained and the points 
immediately beyond the young plants pinched out, as also should 
all other runners as soon as they appeal-, so as to promote the 
formation of good plump crowns to supply a succession of flowers 
in early spring, by which time the floriferousness of the original 
plants will be on the wane. 
To grow Violets successfully there must be no coddling of the 
plants, which would lead to failure ; and in order to prevent the 
latter from damping during the winter and early spring months 
abundance of fresh air must be admitted during favourable 
weather, and water when necessary at the roots should be applied 
sufficiently early on a bright morning to allow of the foliage 
getting dry before night, when, except in the case of frost, which 
would necessitate their being covered with mats, a little ventilation 
being provided. Young plants or runners p anted, as already 
stated, in south, west, and north aspects out of doors in rich soil, 
and subsequently attended to in the way of watering, thinning out 
of the runners, and the pinching out of the points of those left for 
the production of flowers immediately beyond the crowns of the 
miniature plants, will yield a long succession of flowers to those 
previously gathered from plants under glass.— H. W. Ward, 
Longford Castle. 
THOUGHTS ON CURRENT TOPICS. 
What with one thing and another I shall soon have as much thinking 
to do as I can manage comfortably. Mr, William Thomson desires me to 
“ prove ” the “ facts ” about moisture passing from the atmosphere through 
the skins of Grape 5 , causing the fruit to split; Mr. Murphy invites my 
a'tention to the question of stem-roots on Liliums, and the treatment of 
bulbs generally after flowering; and Mr. Gilbert seems to invite me to 
tell him how many “years” have elapsed since he ceased trenching—not 
for Broccoli, which would grow freely enough in the middle of Burghley 
Park if he were to stick them in, but as a means of increasing the fertility 
of the Marquis of Exeter’s garden. 
As Mr. Gilbert is one of my esteemed friends he shall have my first 
and best attention. I cannot name the exact day of the month when the 
great master in the art of vegetable culture relinquished the “ antiquated ’ 
practice, but I know when he won the Carter fifty-guinea cup aud other 
good prizes he was diving deep down into mother earth in search of the 
