August 28, 1880 . ] JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 170 
i y^> 
COMING EVENTS! 
26th 
TH 
Crystal Palace Fruit Show closes. 
27th 
F 
Craven Agricultural Show. 
28th 
S 
Halifax Horticultural Show. 
29th 
SUN 
14tu Sunday after Trinity. 
30th 
M 
31st 
Tu 
Banbury Horticultural Exhibition. 
1st 
W 
Sale of Plants at the Ferneries, Farnworth, Warrington. 
TOMATO CULTURE. 
HE Tomato has long been cultivated in the gar¬ 
dens of the richer classes, but not to any great 
extent, and in the majority of eases the only 
attempt to secure a crop consisted merely of 
raising plants and planting them at the base 
of walls. If they succeeded, so much the better ; 
and if they partially or completely failed, then 
l 3j) Tomato sauce had more or less to be dispensed with. 
A complete revolution, however, is being very rapidly 
effected, and not only is it incumbent on those in charge 
of large gardens to maintain a supply of good fruit, but the 
owners of smaller gardens, amateurs, and even cottagers, are 
also acquiring a taste for Tomatoes. This, in my opinion, very 
satisfactory state of affairs, may be accounted for in several 
ways, the most important probably being the undoubted 
superiority of the varieties of modern introduction, more 
especially those of American origin. These are particularly 
good eaten as a salad in an uncooked state, and, much as some 
epicures may like Tomato sauce, they will dispense with this 
rather than the salad. 
Many, owing to the uncertainty of the outdoor crop, are 
now turning their attention to the growth of Tomatoes under 
glass, and I see no reason why they should not so be grown in 
every garden with any pretence to the name. Room is found 
for and much time and trouble is spent over a crop of Cucum¬ 
bers, which are really unwholesome ; or Melons, which unless 
well grown are very unsatisfactory ; then why not grow fewer 
of these and substitute Tomatoes ? They can be grown in 
frames much more easily than either, and if grown in houses 
are certainly more ornamental. By all means grow them in the 
open air as heretofore, regarding them as a supplementary crop, 
to be appreciated if a success, and, if a failure, not such an in¬ 
convenience as of old. At the present time I have a few 
fruits left on plants in a plant stove, a great quantity to follow 
these in a cool plant house—the plants in pots in both instances, 
a number of dwarf plants bearing heavy crops in a cold pit 
previously occupied with early Cauliflowers, more at the base 
of walls, and a number planted in a south border and trained 
up stakes. Neither of the two latter is affected either by the 
late dull wet weather or the disease, which is either the natural 
result of such weather, or, as savants have it, really the Potato 
fungus disseminated in the form of “ spore-laden air sweeping 
over the earth." This theory, however, ha3 yet to be proved ; 
but if correct the question arises, Are there separate waves for 
both Tomatoes and Potatoes ? The latter are as bad as can 
well be, but we as yet hear no complaints about the former. 
It is not my intention at the present time to refer at any 
length to any of the above crops, as they may advantageously 
be left to a more seasonable date, but I will offer remarks on 
the cultivation of Tomatoes during the winter that may 
possibly be of some use to the inexperienced. 
Tomatoes are really of very easy culture, and are of a very 
accommodating nature—that is, they can be grown in a variety 
of positions, and if a few important details are closely ob¬ 
served success is certain in every instance. In the spring and 
summer they are grown here both in boxes and large and small 
pots under glass, and are either trained perpendicularly up 
stakes or wires at the ends of Peach and plant houses or 
vineries, thinly at intervals round the sides of a high plant 
house, or up the roof of a low plant house. I have also had 
good crops from plants trained to the back walls of a vinery, 
but in this instance the Vines had not filled the house, and 
care was taken not to crowd the plants. Bottom heat is not 
really necessary, but I like to have the earliest crops near the 
hot-water pipes. 
Strong plants in pots in a cool house which is closed rather 
early in the afternoon have been stopped beyond the third 
cluster of fruit, and will now be allowed to make a single 
strong shoot near the top, to be stopped beyond the second 
bunch of bloom it will form. By the time these blooms are 
fairly set the first crop will be nearly or quite matured, and 
after some of the old soil in the pots has been removed, and a 
liberal top-dressing given, the whole batch will be placed in 
a plant stove, the temperature of which, although never high, 
is seldom allowed to fall below 60°. The pots will stand on a 
staging about 12 inches above the hot-water pipes, and the 
plants be trained up the highest part of a trellis at present 
occupied by Melons. To keep up the supply through the 
winter a number of plants obtained from cuttings which are 
now being struck, are grown on and trained-up the bared stems 
of the older plants, thus avoiding injury to the‘ordinary oc¬ 
cupants of the rest of the staging, the plants being potted 
singly in large pots and arranged in one line only. 
Plants raised from cuttings are not preferred to seedlings, 
but when strong well-matured growth can be obtained cuttings 
strike readily in a little heat and make good plants. My cuttings 
are taken from the tops of pinched-back plants, a little of the 
old wood being retained, as strong sappy shoots taken oif 
without this precaution are apt to damp off. About five are 
placed near the sides of a G-inch poq in moderately fine soil 
The pots are placed in a Cucumber frame, and the cuttings 
shaded slightly till rooted. They are then potted-off into 
5-inch pots, and returned to the frame till established, and are 
then without delay well exposed to the sun on the front staging 
of a Peach house. Before becoming root-bound they receive 
their final shift into either 10 or 12-inch pots, the soil employed 
consisting of two parts of rough turfy loam to one of roughly 
chopped decomposed manure. A moderate amount of drainage 
is employed, and this is covered with the roughest of the soil. 
The plants are potted firmly and deeply, the pots being only 
about three parts filled to admit of a good top-dressing being 
given later on. On these young plants again I like to have a 
cluster of fruit set before they are placed in a higher tempera¬ 
ture, but they are not left in the Peach house later than 
September, or a check to the growth is the consequence. One 
stem only is allowed wherever the Tomatoes are grown, and no 
laterals are permitted to form (an important detail not so 
No. 9 .—tol. I., Third Series 
No. 1«65.—Ton. EXIT., Old Series. 
