from it is over.  Throughout May we may find plants for sale everywhere.  If we desire to try distinct kinds with the least trouble, we can sow the seed about May 1, and in our climate enjoy an abundant yield in September, or before.  In the cool, humid climate of England the tomato is usually grown en espalier, like the peach, along sunny walls and fences, receiving as careful a summer pruning as the grape-vine.  With us it is usually left to sprawl over the ground at will.  By training the vines over various kinds of supports, however, they may be made as ornamental as they are useful.  The ground on which they grow should be only moderately fertile, or else there is too great a growth of vine at the expense of fruit.  This is especially true if we desire an early yield, and in this case the warmest, driest soil is necessary.

But comparatively a few years ago the tomato consisted of little more than a rind, with seeds in the hollow centre.  Now, the only varieties worth raising cut as solid as a mellow pear.  The following is Gregory’s list of varieties:  Livingston’s Beauty, Alpha, Acme, Canada Victor, Arlington, General Grant.  I will add Trophy and Mikado.  If a yellow variety is desired, try Golden Trophy.

If the tomato needs warm weather in which to thrive, the egg-plant requires that both days and nights should be hot.  It is an East Indiaman, and demands curry in the way of temperature before it loses its feeble yellow aspect and takes on the dark green of vigorous health.  My method is simply this:  I purchase strong potted plants between the twentieth of May and the first of June, and set them out in a rich, warm soil.  A dozen well-grown plants will supply a large family with egg-fruit.  Of course one can start the young plants themselves, as in the case of tomatoes; but it should be remembered that they are much more tender and difficult to raise than is the tomato.  Plants from seed sown in the open ground would not mature in our latitude, as a rule.  The best plan is to have the number you need grown for you by those who make it their business.  Eggplants are choice morsels for the potato-beetle, and they must be watched vigilantly if we would save them.  There is no better variety than the New York Improved.

The pepper is another hot-blooded vegetable that shivers at the suggestion of frost.  It is fitting that it should be a native of India.  Its treatment is usually the same as that of the egg-plant.  It matures more rapidly, however, and the seed can be sown about the middle of May, half an inch deep, in rows fifteen inches apart.  The soil should be rich and warm.  When the plants are well up, they should be thinned so that they will stand a foot apart in the row.  The usual course, however, is to set out plants which have been started under glass, after all danger from frost is over.  Henderson recommends New Sweet Spanish and Golden Dawn, The Large Bell is a popular sort, and Cherry Red very ornamental.