August 14, 1890. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
129 
A T this time of the year everyone has some acquaintance with 
Tomatoes, but they are only known to the bulk of consumers 
through the medium of the fruiterers’ shops, and in the great 
majority of these there is only cheap foreign fruit, which lacks the 
perfection of finish, colour, flavour, and ripeness, as well as beauty 
of shape, which we are accustomed to see and admire in English 
grown produce. Shop-window Tomatoes are lacking in variety. 
They are practically of one size, shape, and colour. We look in 
vain for the rich golden yellow fruit, small and large, for the 
delicious plum and cherry-shaped sorts, and the large clusters of the 
small-fruited Currant Tomato. Then there are the smooth, large- 
fruited varieties, differing slightly in shape and colour, which, 
though often seen exposed for sale, are by no means common, at 
least the most shapely and handsome fruits are not. To see 
Tomatoes in perfection they should be inspected growing on the 
plants in a representative collection of varieties, such as in the 
Royal Horticultural Society’s garden at Chiswick, or in private 
gardens where they are well and skilfully cultivated. 
The Tomato as an outdoor plant does well in the southern parts 
of England in seasons when the weather is hot and dry, and when 
proper attention is given to the plants. But it is in the United 
States of America that the Tomato is said to attain its highest 
perfection with the least trouble or special cultivation. In that 
sunny and specially favoured country nobody dreams of growing 
Tomatoes under glass. I am informed that the seed is sown in 
rows in the State of Illinois, like a row of Peas, the plants thinned, 
and stakes driven down about 8 feet apart, to which strings are 
attached, and the growths trained to these, or sometimes sticks are 
placed to the rows in the same manner as Peas, and I believe very 
little further trouble is taken with them. Here in England, how¬ 
ever, whether the plants are grown outside or under glass, we find 
it very necessary to follow some rules of restriction of growth, 
for assisting the plants to flower, set their fruit, and produce good 
crops of finely flavoured and well-coloured shapely specimens 
which, I venture to say, cannot be excelled by the Americans. 
There are various ways of growing Tomatoes under glass. 
Planting out in borders is, however, the best where plenty of head 
room for the extension of the stems is available. It is surprising 
what a shallow depth of soil, if it is made firm, the Tomato can be 
grown in. I have plants growing in less than G inches depth of soil, 
about 14 inches in width, bearing good crops of fruit. The soil is 
held up by a double row of bricks, and is placed on a hard bottom 
of stone, simply the surface of a stone table above the hot-water 
pipes. Some addition is made to the bulk of the soil in the course 
of the season, but no great quantity is at any time added. Where 
there is unlimited room for the stems to extend, as under the roof 
of a span or a lean-to house, more room or depth of soil may be 
provided. When planting on hillocks of soil, too, the depth must 
be regulated by the depth of the pot from which the plant is 
turned out. The ball of roots requires to rest on a stratum of soil 
about an inch in depth, and the surface of the ball should be 
covered with about 2 inches, all pressed firmly round. The manner 
of potting Tomatoes in their fruiting pots needs but little reference, 
as it is generally understood and conceded that sufficient soil only 
is necessary to induce a vigorous and sturdy start, and to carry the 
plants to the development of the first bunches of bloom and the 
No. 529.— Yol. XXI., Third Series. 
safe setting of the fruit that should follow, after which, further 
support is from time to time necessary. When the plants have 
become established and are growing freely, the necessary pruning 
and training commences, and requires to be followed almost daily 
throughout the season. On this depends to a great extent the 
fruitfulness of the plants. The simplest method of training is con¬ 
fining each plant to a single stem, which is allowed to extend without 
stopping until it has filled its allotted portion of space, rubbing out 
or breaking off all the growths that appear in the axils of the 
leaves, paying particular attention to shoots which start and are 
liable to grow very vigorously near the leading points of the plants. 
A few days’ inattention to this matter often necessitates surplus 
growth having to be cut away with the knife, instead of being 
rubbed off: 'with the finger and thumb, or broken away when in a 
brittle condition. These little matters are worth attending to 
regularly, because of the ease with which they are accomplished at 
the proper time, and the consequent benefit to the plants. 
It is not absolutely necessary in all cases to confine a plant to 
one stem only, though in the case of pot plants grown perpen¬ 
dicularly to a stake it is the best method. Under a roof two 
or three stems may be allowed to grow, but in the case of each 
stem the same attention to the timely removal of the side 
shoot3 is requisite. More fruit is often obtained in this way, but 
the largest and finest specimens are, as a rule, obtained from 
single-stemmed plants. When more than two or three stems 
are allowed the grower may be said to have adopted the extension 
system, and by this method he can manage with fewer plants. 
This is a very good way of growing a spring crop of the small 
fruited sorts. They do not require such high feeding as the 
others, and plants of these sooner recover from the weak and 
spindly condition which Tomatoes preserved through the winter 
and planted early in a warm position, but often a long way 
from the glass, frequently assume. A good breadth of extension- 
trained plants will give early fruit and continue a succession of 
flowei’ing, setting, swelling, and ripening fruit throughout the 
summer, but the most constant and b;st attention must be given 
to them. 
During the period of flowering plenty of air is necessary to 
enable the plants to develop perfect floral organs, which the bast 
varieties invariably do, with the exception of sometimes producing 
a central fasciated or deformed flower. This is best removed, par¬ 
ticularly when the fruits are wanted for exhibition purposes, as to 
allow it to set and develop only results in an unshapely fruit. 
The pollen is distributed on sunny days about noon by lightly 
shaking the truss of bloom or tapping the stems of the plants, 
and some growers syringe the plants lightly to effect the same 
object. It is surprising how long the fertilised blooms sometimes 
are in swelling the young fruit, but generally the first bunches 
swell rapidly, and then it may often be noticed that further 
bunches refuse to swell. When this is the case it is a certain sign 
that more support to the roots is needed, and until that is given 
the fruit, or rather the young bunches of embryonic fruit, will 
remain at a standstill, the limited amount of support the plant had 
at command having been utilised by the first formed bunches. At 
this stage there is nothing to equal a top-dressing of turfy loam 
and manure in which is also mixed a little soot and bonemeal, 
and placed on the surface when the soil is moist. It will soon 
attract a multitude of white fibres, the effect of -which is to give 
a fresh impetus to the forces of the plants, and which will soon 
be made apparent by the enlargement of the fruit. As the rootlets 
extend and multiply more water will be needed, and also weak 
supplies of clear soot water or other liquid manure. Fresh top- 
dressings of the same materials may be applied with advantage 
from time to time as they are seen to be necessary, and in this 
way, together with applications of liquid and artificial manure, the 
plants are strengthened and good crops of fine fruit secured. I 
find that when planted out on hillocks of soil top-dressing is not 
No. 2185.— Yol. LXXXIII., Old Series. 
