TOMATO 



TOMATO 



1817 



peaches, and forwarded by "ventilated fast freight." 

 This meets the early spring demand, but the fruit 

 ripens unevenly and is frequently unsalable at the 

 expected fancy figures on account of its appearance. 



A growing tendency has been lately manifested to 

 ship as the fruit is coloring, after careful and syste- 

 matic grading, in " four-basket carriers " by refrigerator 



surplus moisture. The feeding power of the roots 

 should be reduced and evaporation stimulated from the 

 soil. Possibly a light application of superphosphate at 

 time of cultivation would also prove beneficial. 



Black rot, or blossom end rot, a widespread affection 

 causing great loss of fruit, and quite familiar to all, 

 seems to have long been en-oneously ascribed solely to 

 one of the forms of Macrosporium— the fa- 

 miliar early blight of the potato — and Bor- 

 deaux mixture is consequently suggested as 

 a remedy. Recent investigations by Earle 

 seem to indicate that the real cause of the 

 malady is no fungus but a bacillus, incapable, 

 unaided, of penetrating the outside tissues of 

 the fruit, but rapidly developing on abraded 

 surfaces or in insect wounds of any kind. 



cars. Despite the extra cost of icing and the later ship- 

 ment, quality and prices are thereby more satisfactorily 

 maintained and the northern public will soon insist al- 

 together on this more rational method being put into 

 practice universally. The sorting and grading cannot 

 be carried too far, since the culls and second-class fruits 

 are equally as good for the cannery as first grades and 

 hence the standard of excellence may always be main- 

 tained without material loss. 



Fungous Diseases. — Of the fungous affections of the 

 Tomato, damping-off in the seed-bed is the first to be 

 noted, and is familiar to all. Provoked by excess of 

 moisture, warmth and confined air, it may be controlled 

 by withholding water from the young plants except at 

 midday, stirring the soil to break up and destroy the 

 mycelium of the fungus, and otherwise thoroughly 

 ventilating. 



Mildew, Cladosporiiim fulvum, is a common mal- 

 ady in the South during wet seasons, and may be easily 

 recognized by the continuous and successive death of 

 the foliage from below upward along the main stem, 

 and the great effort of the plant to set new leaves and 

 branches above, thereby maintaining its life at the ex- 

 pense of production. Steady spraying with Bordeaux 

 mixture is the remedy. 



Florida blight, an undetermined species of Sclero- 

 tium, is less common, though sometimes quite serious. 

 It produces a wilted appearance in the plant somewhat 

 resembling that caused by the "bacterial blight," and 

 like it generally causes death. The peculiarity of this 

 fungus consists in the fact that the greater portion of 

 its life is passed under ground and it is hence unaffected 

 by fungicides applied to the foliage. Even when ap- 

 plied to the surface of the ground beneath the plant 

 Bordeaux mixture is of little value, since the precipitate 

 formed by the copper salt in suspension is more or less 

 arrested or strained out by the soil as the liquid filters 

 through. The ammoniacal solution of copper carbonate, 

 and eau celeste, are not liable to this objection, and may 

 be used as remedies with fairly satisfactory results. 



Leaf curl, oedema, is also well known and while it 

 seldom, if ever, completely destroys the plant, yet it 

 greatly reduces its productiveness and is all the more 

 insidious from the fact that it frequently escapes notice 

 until it reaches an advanced stage. It is a form of vege- 

 table dropsy due to too much soil moisture, unbalanced 

 food formulas or excessive pruning— one or all. Cessa- 

 tion of pruning followed by deep cultivation will arrest 

 the malady, to a great extent, as the plants will thus be 

 given an opportunity to set foliage, thereby affording 

 breathing surface sufficient to transpire or pass off the 



2523. Foliaee of the two cultivated species of Tomato. Ly- 

 copersicum pimpinellifolium— Currant Tomato— above ; 

 L, esculentum — common Tomato — below. (X%.) 



The boll worm appears to be an active agent in 

 its distribution, while thrips and other wandering in- 

 sects largely assist in spreading or disseminating the 

 bacilli. Hence fungicides would prove of little avail in 

 controlling the bacterial agencies, which seem to work 

 in conjunction with the fungus heretofore regarded as 

 alone responsible for this malady. We must therefore 

 look for its complete subjugation only to those preven- 

 tive measures which have been found efficacious in 

 other forms of bacterial disease in plants. These are 

 detailed in the next paragraph, which covers the worst 

 malady known to the trucker. 



Bacterial blight, Bacillus solanaeearitm, is by far the 

 most difficult to control of all the affections of the To- 

 mato. When this peculiar form of wilt puts in an ap- 

 pearance the grower is always thrown into more or less 

 of a panic. The malady progresses rapidly. The foliage 

 soon yellows and shrivels, the stems parch and contract, 

 and death follows swiftly. As with most bacterial dis- 

 eases, an effective remedy is yet to be found. At best, 

 preventive measures only can be adopted. Since it has 

 been found that certain insects — among them the Colo- 

 rado beetle — assist in disseminating the bacilli causing 

 the trouble it is evident that all leaf-devouring insect 



