July 13, 1893. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
25 
T hough no plants are probably more easy to grow than 
Tomatoes, none appear to give more trouble to many persons 
who essay their cultivation. Notwithstanding all the information 
that has been given in our columns from time to time by men 
who have succeeded in growing the most satisfactory crops and 
men who have failed detailing the cause of their failures and 
eventually winning success ; and notwithstanding the replies that 
have been given, we had almost said over and over again, in 
our answers to correspondents’ columns, on almost every con¬ 
ceivable point in connection with Tomato culture, Tomato 
diseases. Tomato prices, further inquiries, perplexities, disappoint¬ 
ments, regrets, challenges relative to the soundness or otherwise 
of advise that has been given, come pouring in. All this betokens 
wide interest in Tomato culture, and we are g’ad that it is so ; 
but we are not exuberantly delighted when we find among our 
correspondents a select few who, after all that is done to help 
them, disposed to question almost every statement, and express 
regret that some other information was not given them, or 
different steps taken in dealing with a case, or cases, imperfectly 
presented. 
Tomato culture is a question of common sense. It cannot be 
successfully conducted by a course of elaborate argument founded 
on fanciful theories deduced from conflicting results that have 
been observed under varying conditions, the significance of which 
can rarely be appreciated by inexperienced people. Than assisting 
those who have not been taught in the school of practice, and 
giving hints of guidance that may be helpful to them, we feel 
nothing more pleasurable. It is work in which, after years of 
experience in it, we do not grow weary ; but we have a right to 
expect that the advice we take pains to give shall be followed 
intelligently and perseveringly, as in no other way can its sound¬ 
ness be tested and benefit derived from it. This, we have good 
reason to believe, is the practice of at the least 90 per cent, of 
seekers for information. Not a few have found the advantage of 
their own efforts in that direction, and a very substantial advantage 
it has been to many ; but there is a residuum. There always is in 
every body of individuals who have a common object in view, who 
do not appear to be able to accept plain teaching, and turn it to 
practical account. They prefer, like a certain Handy Andy of old, 
to argue the point. 
We may tell an inquirer that the night temperature of his 
Tomato house has been kept too low by the want of a little warmth 
in the water pipes, and he retorts by saying that so-and-so has no 
means of heating the house in which he grows healthy plants free 
from the disease and obtains good crops of fruit. Evidently he 
assumes the low night temperature theory is all fudge. We may 
inform another (juerist that he errs in his method of ventilation, 
and forces his plants too rapidly into growth when young ; that he 
ought to strive for firmer growth, employ less moisture, and pro¬ 
vide more air. Such advice does not quite fall in with his views, 
because he has been told his plants have had too much air. A third 
does not seem able to move a finger in checking disease till he learns 
not only the generic but the precise specific name of the attacking 
fungus ; yet he is told of measures that if promptly resorted to 
and properly carried out will arrest the spread of all fungi. He 
sends an apology for a Tomato leaf which arrives like tinder 
No. 681.— Von, XXVII., Third Sehies. 
through its enclosure in a letter and the paper abstracting from it 
what little moisture it contained when plucked from the plant. He 
is asked to send fresh specimens, so packed that they may arrive 
in a fresh state. He then plucks two small leaflets, throws 
them into a box that would hold fifty such like, without anything 
to keep them fresh and firm, never thinking that by the shaking 
they receive in the post in their dry enclosure and a “roasting*^ 
temperature, that they arrive much in the same state as if they 
had been carefully pressed round a heated curling iron. He is toll 
the nature of the disease and how to proceed ; but that is not 
enough, and he must have the exact name, sending at last a sample 
encased in a Cabbage leaf. This sample arrives fresh with the 
fungus all alive, and is identified at a glance. 
In consequence of the thoughtlessness of the sender in that 
case and nothing else, and his want of the “ name ” of the foe, 
it has been afforded an excellent opportunity to establish itself, 
and has done so, for the last leaflet received was worse than the 
first. Yet the steps to take in dealing with such attacks were 
plainly and fully given a fortnight previously. That is a case of 
grasping after a shadow and losing the substance, or a resort to 
pedantic rather than common sense methods in the emergency. 
There may be yet time to save the plants, and we strongly hope 
the enemy will be conquered ; but whatever of failure ensues will 
be through the mistake of the owner and no one else, though we 
may expect he will be the last to admit it ; but the fact does not 
permit of argument. 
We are as pleased to acquire information from experienced 
correspondents as we are to impart it to the inexperienced ; but 
when the latter rise superior in their knowledge to men who have 
won success through many long years of labour, study, and 
observation, we have to place ourselves on their side, and not 
silently permit their teaching to be questioned and controvened 
by dialecticians, who, by lack of cultural knowledge, are apt te 
base their arguments on false premises, and do so base them. 
Because Tomatoes are healthy and free from disease in glass 
structures, in which there is no means for supplying artificial heat, 
that is no argument that the fungoid disease will not attack the 
plants that have been grown with the aid of artificial heat, and this 
withdrawn to save fuel. There is no analogy between the two 
cases. We know of Tomatoes as healthy as plants can be, and 
ripening excellent fruit in elevated Pearson’s frames that can only 
be heated by the sun. The plants were sturdy and strong, 
requiring no stakes to support them when planted from 5-inch pots, 
nor for some time afterwards. They were planted in fresh loam., 
not rich, but very firm. They were not watered daily, nor bi-daily, 
often not more than once a week, on a bright morning, sufficicnl 
air being given so that the surface of the soil became perfectly dry 
before night. Failing this it was dusted with dry soil. On coM 
clear nights the glass was covered to prevent too great a disparity 
between the night and day temperature. With the comparative 
absence of moisture in the frame, and the leaves not unduly 
cooled, there was no appreciable deposition of dew on them. 
They have never been syringed. The stems are short-jointed 
and firm, the leaves not particularly large, but remarkably 
thick and rustle like parchment. The plants produced a mass 
of flowers, clouds of pollen, and are now laden with fruit. 
There is not a speck of disease on them. They are in a condition 
to repel rather than favour parasitic growths. They are fully 
ventilated in the day, moderately at night, air being increased very 
soon after the sun reaches the frame at 5 a m. So long as there is 
no Potato disease about, nor Tomatoes affected with either th« 
Phythopthora and Cladiosporium fungi in gardens near, the system 
of ventilation will be pursued, always in accordance with the 
weather ; but should those fungi appear anywhere near outside 
the Tomato frame this would be kept closed entirely at night and 
practically in the daytime to exclude the fungus spores, and the 
later fruits would ripen well. It is surprising the heat that 
No. 2337.— Yol. LXXXIX., Old Series. 
