430 QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. [1 Dec., 1897. 
especially in lime, potash, and sulphuric acid. Too much ammonia, however, 
as is contained in fresh cow manure, induces a rank growth of the vine which 
renders the plant liable to diseases. 
When the land is reduced to a tilth as fine as flour, and when all danger 
of frost is over, then is the time to transplant. 
Take now two poles, say 7 feet long, and on them nail a few light boards, 
say 3 feet long, which will give you a hand-bearer. 
; Take also a mason trowel with 2 or 3 inches of the pointed end cut off, go 
to your hot-bed, which has been copiously watered the day before, thrust the 
trowel under the above-described unsoldered tins, lift gently and deposit on the 
board ot your hand-bearer. When a sufficient number has been lifted fora load, 
, carry to the field ; take again the tins one by one on your trowel, and leave one 
at every intersection of two furrows. Bring the surrounding earth towards it 
with your hands, then slacken gently the tin and take it off. By that simple 
manner the tomato plant has retained the whole lump of earth in which it had 
grown, and hardly feels the effect of transplanting at all. No transplanting 
should take place, however, when the soil is cold ; in the middle of a hot day, 
or in windy weather. Should it be rainy or cloudy no watering is required, 
but if hot and dry a pint of tepid water given to each plant is beneficial. 
Should the weather prove very unfavourable, it would be well to protect 
each plant for two or three days with covering of paper or bark. Shoulda late 
frost be feared, the same means would suffico to protect the plants. If the 
soilis thoroughly pulverised and light, there is a still simpler way of preserving 
the plants from frost. It consists in walking along the rows and pushing in 
front the hand-hoe Planet Junior with the two mould-boards turned inside, thus 
covering every plant with a couple of inches of soil. They will stand it without 
injury for at least forty-eight hours. The uncovering must be done carefully 
by hand towards the evening of the following day. ‘ ; 
During the three or four following weeks, the work consists chiefly in 
keeping the horse Planet Junior going, first in: one direction, then cross- 
wise in another. This will maintain the land perfectly free from weeds, and 
well tilled. It also reduces the chipping by hand round the plants to a mere 
trifle. 
If a few very early tomatoes are required, you can now prune a few plants, 
pinching off the side-shoots, topping when a few bunches of flowers have 
appeared, and tying the plants up on stakes ortrellis. But in ordinary seasons 
these plants are sure to die off during the hot scorching days of January. 
For the main crop—I speak for the districts lying west of the range—do not 
stake at all, nor train on trellis. Put around each plant a 6-inch layer of long 
straw which has been previously trampled under the feet of horses in the 
yard or in the stable, and over this add another 6-inch layer of clean straw. 
In that way the plant, having its roots well fed and protected, will make rapid 
headway, will spread on the mulch in every direction, and yield abundantly for 
eight or ten weeks, At this time, which generally coincides with the beginning 
of the rainy reason, prune them rather severely, leaving only four main 
branches. The cut-off branches can be used as cuttings to make new plants 
from. ‘They come rapidly into bearing. The lover of nature, who has time 
at his disposal, can also insert them into a potato stem by the process known 
as herbaceous graft, and indulge in the pleasure of getting two simultaneous 
crops, one of tomatoes on top and one of potatoes underground. ‘The opera- 
tion succeeds easily, both plants belonging to the same family (the Solanea 
verae). Lay these down into trenches 6 inches deep, running in four directions 
at right angles to each other, leaving only 7 or 8 inches of the ends 
out of the ground. When the operation is finished, the whole field looks again 
as if it were regularly planted ; only the plants oceupy now the middle of the 
squares of the first planting. 
* This method is in effect the same as that adopted by Mr. W. Soutter, Curator of the 
Acclimatisation Gardens, Brisbane, for transplanting palms from the Blackall Ranges.—Ed. 
QAS. 
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