THE TOMATO. 
337 
is usually an expensive undertaking. Mortar 
rubbish, burnt earth and ashes, sand, leaf-soil, 
and such like, when freely mixed with heavy 
soils, improve their character considerably. 
Manures . — Various fertilizers have been sug¬ 
gested for Tomatoes, and most authorities are 
agreed that a too free use of animal manures is 
liable to promote a luxuriant, disease-inviting 
growth of plant, and in retentive soils especially 
they ought to be somewhat sparingly used. 
American experts are mostly in favour of 
chemical manures, and exhaustive series of 
experiments have demonstrated the fact that 
it pays better to use certain mixtures at a 
fixed rate at planting-time than to distribute a 
similar quantity over a period of two or three 
months. Nitrate of soda and sulphate of am¬ 
monia, as previously intimated, act quickly, 
and if a full dressing is given at one time, 
a portion of it is liable to be washed away 
Fig. 1115.—Tomato—Best of All. 
before the plants can avail themselves of it, 
and this means so much waste of a valuable 
manure. Special mixtures for Tomatoes are 
to be obtained from various vendors at reason¬ 
able prices, and if these are applied according 
to the directions given with them no mistake 
will be made. Those who prefer to buy and 
mix their own manures are referred to the 
formula already given (p. 333), using the 
mixture at the rate of about 12 lbs. per square 
rod, or roughly, 6 ozs. to the square yard 
of ground. For the more clayey, retentive 
soils sulphate of ammonia may be substituted 
for nitrate of soda, and lighter dressings all 
round are desirable in the case of soils not 
previously cropped with Tomatoes. Where 
animal manures have been frequently applied 
rather freely, this might well be withheld for 
one season, and a surface-dressing of newly- 
slaked lime, at the rate of half a bushel to a 
VOL. II. 
square rod, given by way of economy, and as 
a corrective of acidity. 
Training .—As a rule Tomatoes produce the 
heaviest crops when trained up the roof near 
the glass; but a far greater number of plants 
can be found room for, and a much greater 
weight of fruit be had, by planting in rows 
across a house, and either providing each plant 
with a bamboo stake, or else twisting them 
round strings secured to pegs in the ground or 
to the stem of the plant and to the roof. It 
may here be added that the durable bamboos 
are the best in the long run, though they may 
seem a little expensive at the outset. Crowd¬ 
ing the plants is a great mistake. When 
planted 12 inches to 14 inches apart, in rows 
2 feet or so apart, the crops set well for a 
time, but eventually the plants smother and 
rob each other, and the fruits in consequence 
are light in weight and poor in quality. The 
63 
