Gardening and Animals

1860

Growing Tomatoes

The Working Farmer says of the tomato plant, “that it bears
eighty per cent. of its fruit within eighteen inches of the ground,
while more than half the plant is above that part. When the
branches are cut they do not bleed, and they may therefore be
shortened immediately above the large, or early setting fruit. The
removal of the small fruit on the ends of the branches is no loss,
for the lower fruit will swell to an unnatural size by trimming,
and both a greater weight and measure of fruit will be the consequence, besides obtaining a large portion five to fifteen days earlier. The trimming should be done so as to leave a few leaves beyond the fruit, to ensure perfect ripening. The importance of early manuring is too evident to need comment. The burying of the removed leaves immediately around the plant is a good practice, both by ensuring full disturbance of the soil, and by the presenting of a fertilizer progressed precisely to the point of fruit making. The portions buried decay rapidly, and are rapidly assimilated."