In My Garden I cannot but think (though my experience
is not extensive) that the bush tomato is a most valuable arrival for those who grow the fruit out- of-doors. You can keep the cloche over it much longer ; and the cardinal trouble with the out-door tomato is to ripen it in time. Every specialist every year insists on the necessity of pinching off all side shoots, but with the bush plant such pruning may be a crime if over-indulged, as it is in most of the hard pruning of apple trees. The garden season has been remarkable for its lateness. The early spinach went to seed at three inches from the ground ; the early beans were devoured by black fly ; the early peas withered incontinent ; the early beetroot would not germinate. Contrariwise, all the crops sown late flourish. Even the broad beans are quite free from fly, though growing close to ruined neighbours. We may take the hint and sow even now. It is held by the greatest of all our professional seed-growers that it is wiser to sow spring cabbage in August than July ;but the contention is hotly disputed.
W. BEACH THOMAS.
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