Somewhere around 1870 Mr. Wm. Mansfield, of Johnsons Creek, Wis., commenced to apply what Gov.  Hoard, of Wisconsin, told him was “persevering intelligence,” to the propagating and improving of the tomato, and he soon found out that the tomato was capable of almost unlimited improvement.  He has made a specialty of the tree tomato, of which he says he has demonstrated to the world that in the Mansfield tree tomato he has produced one of the greatest wonders of the age.  All who have seen them, tasted or grown them, with even a small degree of good sense, are loud in their praise for their good qualities:  wonderful growth of tree, beauty of fruit, smoothness, solidity, flavor, earliness, etc.

In giving directions how to grow them he says you should remember that if your brightest child is raised among Indians he is not likely to become president.  Neither will the tree tomato if thrown on a brush pile, or just stuck in a poor, dry place and left to care for itself, be ready to jump on your table, on the Fourth of July, or any other month, a ripe, delicious, two-pound tomato.

He says first get your seed of some reliable person, who can warrant it pure and all right.  Then at the proper time, which in this climate would be some time in March, get some rich old earth for boxes in your house, hotbeds or greenhouse.  Sow the seed, cover lightly, wet down every day and keep warm, with all the sun possible.  When up ten days transplant to other boxes, six inches apart, and not less than four inches deep.  Keep wet and give all the light and sun you can, and by the time it is safe to set them outside they should stand from twelve to twenty-four inches in height, with bodies half an inch thick.

To prepare the ground.—­First select a place as near water as possible, and also, if you can, let your rows run east and west.  Throw out dirt two spades deep, then put in three or four inches of night soil if you can get it, if not use hen manure and wood ashes, equal parts, or some other strong manure, in the bottom of trench.  Then fill up the trench with the best dirt you can get, mixed with well rotted stable manure, as no fresh manure must come near the roots or bark to rot them.

Now set out your plants without disturbing the dirt about the roots.  Set eighteen inches apart in the row and have the dirt in the trenches a little lower than at the sides.  Place a strong stake at each plant or a trellis and tie them to it as fast as set.  Then if it does not rain use hard, soft, cold or warm water and give plenty each day.  As your plants commence to grow, just above each leaf will start a shoot.  Let only the top of the plant, and only one or two of the best branches grow, so as to have not over one or two of the best stems to run up.  Now the buds for blossoms show themselves on the tops of the vines, and a few inches below.  Just above each leaf, a shoot starts; nip off every one of these just as soon as they appear.  As the lower leaves get brown and old pick them off.  Train the fruit as it grows to the sun.  Tie often and well.  Let no useless wood grow.  Give all the sun possible and water, water and then water.  Then you can take the cake on tomatoes.