==Treatment of Soil.==—­In the first instance there need be no anxiety about soil.  Any fairly good sandy loam will answer for the seed-pans, and if too stiff it may be freely mixed with sharp sand or the sifted sweepings from roads and gravel walks.  A fibrous loam, cut from a rich pasture, and 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, and this size will accommodate two cordons or one plant having two branches, each of which will require a separate stake for its support.  Plunging the pots can be adopted to save labour in watering.