COUNTRY LIFE
Tomato Subjects
The whole subject of tomatoes, particularly the ripening and keeping of them and their failure from disease, has produced a large correspondence, which, for reasons that appear in another paragraph, I have not been able to answer. The most general complaint is that this year's tomatoes, in spite of many interesting tips for storing them in peat and so on, will not keep. This is, of course, not the fault of any method of preservation, but is simply due to a disastrously wet August, followed by an appalling September spell of disease. This disease attacked fruit in dark blotches, which hardened, spread and finally ruined it. Its progress was rampant, and gardeners found their whole crop ruined in a few days. The remedy was bordeaux mix- ture—so called because of its accidental discovery by a Bordeaux wine-grower—which should have been sprayed on the plants in summer. as a preventive measure. However, September was too late to talk about that, with the result that hundreds of growers found that their stored fruit, after a few days, was ripe and rotten. The remedy can, .however, be noted for next year. Meanwhile, there is no reason to suppose that the method of storing in tins in dried peat—the lid on or off the tin not greatly mattering, I think—is anything but a good one.
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