274 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ September 25, l&tO* 
and blooming powers for a few years, but plants of some varieties are 
slower in coming to maturity and longer lived than those of others. In 
a dozen plants of any one variety no two may live for exactly the same 
time, or during their life be in corresponding health. It is impossible to 
define the life term of this plant by the duration of a single plant. It 
may eventually so break into several heads that which of them is the 
real original may be a difficult thing to say. It may give off increase, 
and in favour of strong young plants the parent may have been thrown 
aside when comparatively worn out; or in its evident old age the plant 
may have been cut over, and the much reduced and narrowed head induced 
to go on afresh in restored strength for awhile. Some varieties con¬ 
stitutionally die young, Mr. Ben Simonite and myself having had many 
examples of young seedling beauties that were short-lived, sometimes 
even to the dying of the seed plant without issue. 
I think it may be said that if in a vigorous collection no young 
plants were any longer to be kept, a term of half a dozen years would 
see it in a poor way, and with some varieties quite gone out of it. By 
way of example I would instance the grey edge Geo. Lightbody as a 
long-lived plant, and Alex. Meiklejohn as one of short duration. The 
original plant of Heroine was in good health at seven years old, but 
whether alive now or not I cannot say. The seed plant of Magpie is yet 
able to flower at five years of age, but has been beheaded to save its 
life. 
From all this the fact is plain that to maintain a collection of 
Auriculas in vigour it is imperative to secure a due succession of young 
plants. If neither young nor old will grow as once they did it is worth 
while to try for an exchange of young stock with a grower in another 
part of the country. Further, to maintain the flower itself in the 
characteristic attributes of its lovely florist forms the raising of fresh 
varieties from seed is vital to its existence. The span of human life 
may not suffice to measure the lifetime of an Auricula. We have 
inherited some old beauties and may raise others that will be grown 
when we ourselves are gone far hence; yet not only do individual 
plants but whole varieties as surely if more slowly wear out. In the 
course of years are vigorous or brilliant examples of these more rarely 
seen. They do not come in character so constant or so grand as they 
used to do. They become more difficult to keep up and pass out of 
cultivation, not through displacement only by superior newer kinds, 
for these cannot be rapidly accessible, and there are always growers 
who cherish the favourites of olden times, but because, as with all 
perishable things, the evening of a long day has come at last. Those 
who grow the Auricula, thinking the old varieties will live for ever, and 
those who raise seedlings of much merit and think they never can be 
beaten, live alike in error. It is as sure as possible that flowers more 
fixed and rich in qualities of recognised excellence than the former 
ones can be raised, and that our improvements will be improved upon 
if only men follow us who will care to give the love and thought and 
time required. 
My friend Mr. Morris thinks the Scottish and English growers are 
out of harmony on the subject and practice of repotting. I would not 
put it so. There is not necessarily disagreement in a difference. The 
whole range of the time mentioned for that operation lies easily within 
the convenience of the Auricula. There is no more difference between 
England and Scotland on this point than there is between growers in 
England itself. Some of us repot our plants early and some late. 
Some are not particular, but repot them sooner or later, according to 
opportunity. Some superb plants have been exhibited in our best shows 
that had not been repotted for two years, while, as instances of a diffe¬ 
rent extreme, some of my own best plants have only been lifted from 
the open ground six or eight weeks before the flowers expanded. There 
is room for much difference, without injury to results. 
The Auricula can be repotted either early or late. It can be dis¬ 
turbed, shifted, potted, dug up, knocked about at the roots at any time 
from the end of April till well into September ; but unless something 
is going wrong it is not wise to disturb a plant in the dreary months of 
November and December. By the middle of January, if such need be, 
a plant may have change of soil, and in February and March it may 
be disturbed with none or little apparent check ; but of course it is far 
the best to have Auriculas thoroughly established at the roots by the 
time the spring growth commences. 
I repot my plants as they pass out of flower for reasons that satisfy 
myself, and which I have sufficiently explained long since and more 
than once ; yet I would not call my friend, Hy. Wilson of Halifax, with 
his grand plants, a discordant and inharmonious brother because he 
prefers July for that operation. 
Perhaps there is one advantage in repotting early which I may not 
have previously mentioned. From a plant “ beheaded,” or cut short 
over in May, there will spring offsets from the dormant eyes which may 
be young rooted plants by the time that a grower who repots late is 
beginning to think about starting with the work. Time saved is life 
saved.—F. D. Horner, Lowfields, Burton-in-Lonsdale. 
TOMATOES FOR PROFIT. 
[A paper hy Mr. W. Ifrgulden, Marston Gardens. Frome, read at the meeting of the 
British Fruit Growers’ Association, Brighton, September ltth, 1890.] 
It is doubtful if any industry can be said to have progressed 
more rapidly than Tomato growing for profit. During the past 
six years or thereabouts, the increase in the number of houses 
erected specially for the purpose has been something stupendous, 
and as far as my experience goes there are few or no signs of any 
cessation in building. What is even more satisfactory is the fact 
that it is not a few extra speculative growers that are responsible 
for this great attempt to meet the demands of an ever increasing 
Tomato-loving public, but it has been the means of giving hun¬ 
dreds of deserving men in various parts of the country a good 
opening for gaining a livelihood, and, let us hope, eventually an 
honourable independence. 
The question is often asked, “ Will the supply soon exceed the 
demand, and prices drop below a remunerative price, accordingly i 
This is a reasonable query, though as it happens it is not growers 
who put it, but rather men who are contemplating making a 
beginning. I have never met with one of the former who com¬ 
plained of having more fruit than could be sold at a fairly pro¬ 
fitable rate, and it is my firm belief that the time when the supply 
of home grown Tomatoes will exceed the demand is far distant. 
I could prove, if time would permit, that not only is the Tomato¬ 
becoming a necessary article in the diet of many men of business, 
but that also the industrial classes are becoming equally alive to 
their good qualities. They supply a need long felt—viz., some¬ 
thing to tempt the appetite, and which also is wholesome and fairly 
nutritious. Particularly popular are Tomatoes among supper¬ 
eating folk—a rather numerous body we may reasonably presume 
—and who shall say how much good they do towards allaying 
thirst, and thereby prevent an undue use of injurious alcoholic 
drinks ? 
Successful Tomato Growers. 
It may not be generally known, "but it is an indisputable fact 
nevertheless, that the majority of the most successful growers of 
Tomatoes for sale are men who began with little or no experience 
in the matter, or indeed of horticulture generally ; nor is the reason 
far to seek. Private gardeners, many of whom have lately taken 
to Tomato growing on their own account, and who formerly 
perhaps marketed the surplus fruit grown by them for previous- 
employers, have been accustomed to quite a different class of houses 
to what the shrewd market grower thinks proper to erect, and in 
addition may have imbibed notions very difficult to eradicate. 
Those who know next to nothing as a rule make various inquiries 
among those who do, and the wiser of them make a point of visiting 
some place where the best and cheapest houses are to be seen, and 
then go to work accordingly. The market grower cannot afford to 
build houses that are to last a century, but, on the contrary, he 
ought to have got all he wants out of them in one-quarter of that 
time. Instead, therefore, of erecting an expensive house or houses 
he prefers to put up double that number of cheap structures, his 
returns from the first being doubled accordingly. Nor are “ kid 
glove gentlemen” likely to realise such quick returns as are those 
who both know how and are not afraid to work. From the Channel 
Islands the greatest number of Tomatoes are sent to the markets on 
the mainland, and these are grown by men who do the principal 
part of their own building, and also much of the subsequent work. 
Not a few of these hard working, enterprising, and most deserving 
men previously followed some kind of employment totally different 
to what they are now doing, one much-respected friend of mine 
who has got on well in Tomato and Grape culture having for many 
years been a sailor. Many a private gardener also fancies he knows 
all about Tomato culture, but an “ eye opener ” in the shape of 
such crops as he has never seen before, and which by his methods 
he cannot obtain, awaits him who is not so well experienced in 
Tomato culture as he imagines himself to be. Perseverance is a 
quality needed above all things by the would-be successful grower, 
and the more practical the man the greater the likelihood of his 
succeeding, faddists being simply nowhere in the race for supremacy. 
Paying Crops and Houses for their Production. 
There is really a good demand for Tomatoes all the year round, 
but naturally the prices vary considerably. With so much foreign 
fruit in the markets at nearly all times fancy prices will never be 
had, but home-grown produce being so much superior in every 
respect it will always sell the most readily. It must not be 
imagined I am thinking only of the London markets, although these 
certainly absorb a considerable proportion of the Tomatoes either 
imported or grown in this country. As a matter of fact there is a 
good demand for this fruit in every town in the country, and it is 
all a mistake for anyone to imagine that the vicinity of London is 
the only neighbourhood where Tomatoes can be grown with a good 
prospect of the best returns being had. Even the far north, or 
such an inclement county as Durham, has been found to answer 
well for Tomato culture, cheapness of fuel and slack competition 
more than compensating for climatal disadvantages. 
As a rule the majority of growers aim to have their crops 
ripening from May to November inclusive, the start being made 
as early in the year as possible. In these cases the prices vary 
