184 Subtropical Vegetable-Gardening 



Setting out tomato plants. 



Before the plants are set out in the field, they should be 

 hardened off, but this must be done very carefully. It 

 is not a good practice to withhold the moisture all at once, 

 but it should be done gradually. In this way the plants 

 adapt themselves to the conditions and are thus better 

 able to stand the shock which they receive at setting out. 

 A week before the time the plants are ready to be set out 

 in the field, just enough moisture should be applied to keep 

 the plants in the seed-bed from becoming wilted. It will 

 be found, treating them thus from day to day, that the 

 plants will be in a much better condition to be set out 

 than they were at the time when hardening off was 

 begun. 



The distance at which tomatoes should be set varies 

 with the fertility of the field and with the varieties used. 

 If one has an ordinary field that produces about thirty 

 bushels of corn to the acre, and wishes to use about 1000 

 pounds of fertilizer to the acre, it will be well to plant 

 in checks, 4 by 4 feet. If, however, the land is very fertile, 

 the tomatoes may be planted as close as 3 by 3 feet, 

 or the rows may be planted 4 feet apart, and the plants 

 set at 2 feet or even less in the row. In hot climates when 

 tomato plants are inclined to be short lived, they are 

 placed about a foot apart in the row. Many devices for 

 transplanting purposes have been invented, but none seems 

 to meet the demands fully. Some machines are drawn by 

 horse power and others worked by hand. The greatest ob- 

 jection against some of these is the cost of the implement. 

 Therefore, for various reasons, up to the present time the 



