ORCHARD AND GARDEN.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1260, 23 April 1896, Page 5

ORCHARD AND GARDEN.

TOMATOES. The following excellent paper on the best methods of tomato cultivation was read by Mr J. Greig before one of tho branches of tho South Australian Agricultural Bureau: I would advise an intending grower if requiring seed, to be on the lookout for the first tomatoes in the market, and if they are of good quality—round, smooth, firm and solid—obtain a dozen pounds of them. Even if they cost Is per Hi, they will probably be the cheapest in the long run. Leave them in tho sun until they are thoroughly ripe, or rather till they Login to rot, then breik them up, squeeze out the seed, wash it clean, and spread it in the sun to dry ; and as soon «s dry it may bo packed away till required. My reason for recommending this course is that by so doing you are sure that you have a fairly early tomato and good toed that will grow ; whereas if you go to a seedsman, you may get what you want, or you may got the reverse, fn proof of this I would draw your attention to the seed I. bought last year. They were highly recomnrended us very early, largo and prolific. Early and prolific the certainly are, but tho size makes them quite worthless, as they are unsaleable when there are laige ones in the market, Thus I lost this year one third of my crop of tomatoes through buying seed. Having got your seed, the next matter to consider will bo the time to sow.

In this the grower must be guided somewhat by circumstances. I have found April or May the most suitable. If left later tho ground will he cold, and the seed will not gorminato till the warm weather ol spring comes on, by which time a large percentage of the seed will have rotted ; and even should it grow, the plants are too young to bear early in the season, which is the essential point to be attained. In sowing early there is considerable risk from frost, so that a sheltered position must be chosen for the seedbeds; and even then, should a severe frost be anticipated, it will be well to make a few fires to the windward of the beds. The fires once flight should be covered with damp straw or other rubbish to make a thick smoke, which, hanging over the beds, will prov; nt any damage from the most seven; frost. If, however, these precautions are not taken, and you awake somo morning and find there is a hard frost, mako all haste and apply water through a rose, and give the plants a good shower. If this is done just before the rays of the sun strike on the plant no great damage will accrue. Having decided when to sow, it will bo necessary to decide where to sow,

For April or May sowing select a poor piece of ground without any manure, Dig to a depth of Gin to 9in., taking care to break all the ground fine, giving a good soaking with water, and, when dry enough to work, rake into narrow beds, taking care to make the paths between the beds higher than the beds, so that in watering all the water will run on to the beds and leave the paths dry to walk on, Fake the the beds as fine as possible, slightly damp some fine sand, mix the seed in the sand, and sow evenly over the beds ; cover with a ligh t coating of sand sifted on, just sufficient to be sure that you have all the seed covered. Jf the weather is dry, give a watering every morning at about 10 o’clock. By no means water at night. When the plants are well up, thin out to at least 6in each way. If left closer the plants run too tall and thin, and are not nearly so good for planting out. By thinning to Gin, not watering too freely, and on poor soil, when the time arrives to plant out you will have nice low-set and strong-stemmed plants that will not suffer much in planting. I may say that the tomato is a gross feeder. It will stand any quantity of manure if it has sufficient water, and will yield the maximum quantity of fruit of the best quality. Trellising is advocated by some people. My experience, however, utterly condemns it for this part of the country. We get so much strong wind that the plants would be smashed to pieces on the trellis, except it were an extremely elaborate affair, which would cost too much. The system that I find answers

the best is as follows :—Lay out your ground in lands 16ft to 18ft in width; beginning at the crown with a Gin furrow, work gradually deeper to the finish, plough this out as deep and wide as possible; leave in this state for a few days, when it should be very heavily manured in the furrow. Plough the land back again, beginning as deep as possible, and working shallower to the crown, thus leaving the ground level. Harrow down smooth, rake out all clods from the centre of the land or from over the manure, as this is where you have to plant. Open a small channel, say 4in deep and Gin wide, directly over the deep cultivation and the manure. Plant about 4in to Gin away Irom the water channel on either side, with a distance of 3ft between the plants; water heavily when planting and keep well watered. As the plants begin to grow they naturally fall over and block the water channel. To prevent this, get short pieces of wood, 2ft long—a piece of sapling 2in to 3in thick will do as well as anything. These should be laid across the water channel at such a distance apart that you can get other pieces of wood to reach from one to the other, the top pieces to bo laid directly over the water channel ; with a little care this will prevent the channel from getting blocked up. Should the weather be dry, water every third or fourth day. Keep the surface loos? and the whole clear of weeds. As the warm weather comes on water very freely, more especially if the manuring has been heavy; for the tomato requires new or heavily-manured ground to do well.

Such rows of tomatoes as are here described, xvitli proper care, will by the beginning of November be spread to a

width of 10ft to 12ft, heavily loaded with fruit, chiefly under the bush close to the ground, or even in the ground. It will be found that very few will be damaged from this cause, as a toma'o will ripen splendidly buried in wet sand. Another reason for allowing them to run on the ground is that by so doing many of the branches will sl l ike root, and thus give another channel of fcol supply to the plant. If planted in rows as above desciibed, and thriv ing well, each row should spread to a width of IGft to 20ft. I have frequently had them more. One obji ction to this system is that, spieatling so wide, a part of the crop is alnost certain to bo scalded or burnt by the fierce rays of the sun, but I find that tho advantages far outweigh any loss that may accrue from this cause. One of the disabilities of the grower is a disease which is generally worst in the beginning of the season ; or, in other words, the most profitable part of the crop is most liable to the disease, I have tried spaying with Bordeaux mixture, lime, wood, ashes, and soot, but with no apparent beneficial effect. Another trouble is the caterpillar pest; for the first month after planting out they are apt to be eaten off by a green caterpillar. This cunning animal buries himself in the ground before daylight, and comes out after dark. They eat a plant nearly oil', and then go on to tho next one. Quicklime or soot spread around the plants is a preventive for this, but it entails a lot of labour, as it must bo renewed frequently, especially if the weather is damp.