Vegetable Growing for Market 



177 



Fig. 498. Tomatoes in Handle Basket 



would be a net profit of 72, 10s. for the four months the plants were 

 being grown. Even if another 20 is deducted from this for raising 

 and early cultivation, there is still a substantial profit of 52 10s. for the 

 grower. However, in most parts of the kingdom this can only be ex- 

 pected about once or twice in five years for outdoor Tomatoes. 



Packing* Tomatoes for Market. Tomatoes are packed in various 

 ways for market. Around London these fruits are put up in half-bushel 

 baskets holding about 

 20 Ib. each, and are 

 graded into firsts and 

 seconds, and often into 

 "smalls" or" thirds". In 

 the Channel Islands 

 small handle baskets 

 (fig. 498) holding 12 Ib. 

 are made up, the fruit 

 being covered with paper 

 and tied down. Enor- 

 mous quantities are 

 shipped to the London 

 and provincial markets 

 during the season, the 

 prices returned to the 



growers varying from l^d. to 3d. or 4c. per pound less commission and 

 charges for empties, &c., which often come to as much as 20 per cent. 

 When the prices are low the growers therefore receive but little benefit 

 for their labour. 



Saving* Tomato Seed. Many, if not most, growers like to save their 

 own seed, especially when they happen to have a variety that seems 

 to suit them particularly well. Whether it is better to save seed from 

 early fruits or from those at the tail end of the crop may or may not 

 be a matter of importance, but it may conceivably affect the future crops. 

 Following natural laws, it would appear to be better to select for seed 

 the finest fruits that first ripen in the summer, not only because they 

 are the first, and consequently earliest, but also because they have been 

 produced with the first rush of youth and vigour and their seeds are 

 more likely to have a fine, free, and disease-resisting constitution. The 

 older a plant gets, the more feeble it becomes, the slower it ripens its 

 fruits, and it falls an easier prey to disease. Seeds saved from such a 

 plant may inherit some of the weaknesses of its parent, and consequently 

 yield poorer returns to the grower. Hence it may be assumed that if 

 seeds are to be saved it would be better in every way to obtain them 

 from the first well-ripened fruits of the season. 



It is by no means easy to clean Tomato seeds, as they are firmly 

 embedded in the mucilaginous pulp that is so difficult to detach. One 

 of the best means of obtainino 1 clean Tomato seeds is to cut away the 



VOL. IV. 



57 



