nd laid up in a heap for twelve months, will, with an addition
of wood ashes and grit, make an ideal soil for pots or borders. As the
plants advance, leaf-mould or thoroughly decayed manure in moderate
quantity should be supplied; but, instead of incorporating it with the
loam in the usual way, it will be found advantageous to place the manure
immediately above the crocks, and the roots will find it at the right
time. But the quantity of manure must not be overdone, especially in the
earlier stages of growth, because excessive luxuriance neither promotes
fruitfulness nor conduces to early ripening. After the fruit has set, a
mulch of decayed manure will aid the plants in finishing a heavy crop.
Manure which is only partially fermented will not do at all. The ammonia
it liberates exerts so deadly a power that the plants are quickly
scorched.

In its demand for potash the Tomato closely resembles the Potato, and of
the two the former is the more exacting. So quickly does this crop
exhaust the soil, that in small houses it is usual to take out the earth
to a depth of fifteen or eighteen inches every second or third year, and
replace it with virgin loam. Others grow the Tomatoes alternately in the
bed and in pots, but this is only a partial remedy. Constant dressings
of farmyard or stable manure result in the formation of humus, which, as
it becomes sour, has to be sweetened by the solvent influence of lime.
The chief objection to the use of stable manure, however, even when well
rotted, is that it induces a free growth of foliage instead of promoting
an early development of fruit. The most enduring method is that which is
based on chemical knowledge of the constituents of the soil, and the
relation which the plant bears to it. One of the most successful growers
for the London market almost entirely avoids the use of stable manure,
and he is able, by applications of nitrate of potash, dissolved bones,
and the occasional use of lime, to grow splendid crops in the same
houses year after year.

All the conditions which answer for border work are applicable to pots,
and a limited number of plants brought forward in succession will supply
the requirements of a small household from early spring until near
Christmas. The pot system is conducive to free setting and to early
ripening, and for these reasons it is worth attention. The plants should
be kept short in the joint by frequent shifts until the twelve-inch pot
is reached, an