TOMATOES 265 



country) would not make the cost of his plants. We write this to show that 

 each section of the country has its particular season and crop from the 

 tomato, and that climatic conditions which cannot be overcome, determine 

 to what extent each shall grow the crop. Manurial requirements also vary in 

 the different sections. The amount of manure and fertilizers that the crop 

 absolutely requires in the South would be a disadvantage in its growth in the 

 canning sections of Maryland. 



GROWING THE PLANTS. 



With the advancing season from Florida northward, the sowing of 

 tomato seeds is done at different times. The Florida growers who depend 

 mainly on the advantage of their climate, sow the seeds late in the fall and 

 grow the crop during the winter, taking some risk of frost, of course. As we 

 come up the coast, in sections where frost is certain and sometimes severe in 

 winter, a different method must be used, and the only real difference in the 

 plans of the gardener in the South and in the North is in the time when he 

 sows his seed. In our experience there is nothing gained by sowing the seeds 

 earlier than ten weeks before the time when they can safely be transplanted 

 to the open ground. Every grower will know when this is in his locality, 

 and can make his sowing accordingly. The seed can be sown, of course, in a 

 manure heated hotbed under glass sashes, or in the far South in a cold frame, 

 to be transplanted as soon as large enough to handle to other frames to develop 

 size and to harden off for planting outside. But we find that when the 

 facilities are at hand a greenhouse is the best place for the sowing of the seed, 

 and every market gardener should have a greenhouse for the early starting 

 of his plants of various kinds, since it is far less troublesome and far less 

 risky than a hotbed. We find that here we can set properly hardened plants 

 the first week in April. Hence we sow the seeds about the last of January 

 in shallow boxes or flats in the greenhouse, where a night temperature of 

 55 degrees is maintained. They are sown quite thickly, and as soon as large 

 enough to handle and even before they have any but the seed leaves, we trans- 

 plant them to other boxes about an inch and a half apart and set them down 

 to near the seed leaf. As soon as they begin to crowd in these boxes, they are 

 again transplanted into other boxes about two and a half inches apart By 

 the time they crowd each other in these boxes it will be about the first of 

 March, and then they are transplanted to the cold frames, are given four 

 inches beween the plants, and are set quite deeply in the soil. If severe frost 

 comes, the frames are protected by mats, but the plants are exposed to the air 

 at every favorable time until finally the sashes are left off at night and the 



