This vegetable is well known, and has recently come to be generally
esteemed. It can always be grown without failure, and more easily and at
one fourth of the cost of potatoes. Its use for cooking, eating raw,
and pickling in various forms, is known to all. There are several
varieties. The best of all is the large red--not the largest, but the
smooth ones: although smaller, they contain more, and are much more
conveniently used, than the very large rough or scolloped variety. The
large yellow are less liable to decay on the vines, and have less of the
tomato taste. The small plum-tomato, both red and yellow, and the pear
or bell-shaped, are good for preserving as a common sweetmeat, and for
pickling whole. They should be started in early hotbed--in February in
the Middle States--and transplanted after frosts are over, in rows eight
feet apart each way. That distance will leave none too much room for
letting in the sun and for the convenience of picking. They will mature
on the poorest land; but the amount of the crop is graduated altogether
by the richness of the soil, and the care given them. They will produce
frequently a bushel to a vine, lying on the ground. But they ripen
better, and as the vines are not injured by picking the early ones, they
will produce more, by being trained up. A few sticks to hold them up at
first, and let them break down over them later, is of no use. Train
them, and tie up all the principal bunches, and they will be greatly
benefited thereby. Tied to slats, or any board fence, in a kind of
fan-training form, they do very well. In all cities and villages, enough
for a large family can be grown on twenty-five feet of board-fence,
exposed to the southern or eastern sun, and not occupy the ground a
single foot from the fence. Drive in nails, and tie up the branches as
they grow. Removing some of the branches and leaves, and letting in the
sun, or placing the fruit on a shingle or stone, hastens its ripening.