ds cultivation, sow in pans in April, and put on a gentle
hot-bed, or shut up close in a sunny frame. The plants will soon appear.
Give them light and air, and plant out when they are two or three inches
high. But Sunflowers can be grown without any kind of artificial aid. A
simple and effectual method is to make the spot intended for them very
rich, and dibble the seed an inch deep on the first day of May.

==TOMATO==

==Lycopersicum esculentum==

The taste for Tomatoes often begins with a little antipathy, but it is
soon acquired, and not infrequently develops into decided fondness for
the fruit both cooked and in its natural condition. As a necessary
article of food the call for it in this country is no longer limited to
a select circle of epicures, for the value of its refreshing,
appetising, and corrective properties is now widely recognised, and its
advance in public favour has been accelerated by the improved quality,
enhanced beauty, and increased variety effected by expert raisers.

The Tomato is a tender, but not a tropical plant, and it requires a
moderately high temperature, free access of air, and above all a full
flood of solar light to bring it to perfection. The necessary heat is
easily managed in any garden equipped with ordinary forcing appliances;
so also is a current of air in properly constructed buildings; but the
deficiency of light during the darker months renders the task of
producing fruit in midwinter less easy than at other seasons. By the
introduction of varieties possessing increased powers of crop-setting,
however, the difficulty of winter fruiting has been largely overcome, so
that, with efficient management, it is now possible to send Tomatoes to
table throughout the year.

Almost every imaginable glass structure can be employed for growing
Tomatoes, from the small suburban greenhouse to the vast span-roof,
hundreds of feet in length, devoted to their culture in the Channel
Islands. And it is not essential that the crop should be grown alone.
Potatoes, French Beans, Strawberries, and Vines may be forced in the
same building, provided there be no obstruction to light and air, nor
any interference with the conditions which experience has proved to be
imperative for sustaining the plants in vigorous health. For winter and
spring gathering there must be a service of hot-water pipes, but as the
season advances it is easy to ripen fruit in cool houses, and later on
plants outdoors wil