CHAPTER. LX, 
TOMATO. 
NExtT to lettuce, the tomato is probably the most im- 
portant vegetable grown in American forcing-houses. Its 
only close competitor for this honor is the cucumber. 
Winter tomatoes always find a ready sale at prices rang- 
ing from 25 to 75 cents per pound. Even after the Florida 
tomatoes come upon the market in late winter, a good 
quality of house-grown fruits continues to sell well in every 
good market. The crop is one which demands a high 
temperature, an abundance of sunlight, and great care in 
the growing, but the profits, under good management, are 
correspondingly high. 
The house. — A light and tight house is essential, and it 
must be high enough to allow of training the plants (that is, 
at least 5 feet above the soil in all parts). Our preference 
is a sash-bar frame house, something like those shown in 
Figs. 12 and 13. A north-and-south house would be pref- 
erable, probably, because of the more even distribution of 
light. Tomatoes may also be grown for a late spring crop 
in a carnation or lettuce house (see page 98). 
The importance of direct and strong sunlight was well 
illustrated in one of our experiments. At one end of the 
house is a low building which shaded a part of the plants 
after two or three o’clock. The plants within 3 or 4 feet 
of this building, which were thus deprived of direct sunlight 
for half the afternoon, bore no fruits whatever, although 
they were strong and vigorous. At6 and 7 feet away some 
(153) 
