266 CROP GROWING AND CROP FEEDING 



plants fully exposed a week or more before finally transplanting. We find 

 that the more frequently the plants are transplanted and the earlier they can 

 be gotten out to stand, the earlier the crop. Tomato plants that are properly 

 hardened off before transplanting will endure a slight frost without injury. 

 Once, in Northern Maryland, we set 55,000 tomato plants in the open ground 

 the last of April, which was a very early date for the latitude, above 39 de- 

 grees. But the plants were large and stocky, and had been carefully hard- 

 ened off in the frames. In the early part of Maj we had a white frost that 

 covered the plants. The stems turned blue-black, but they were not hurt, 

 and the result of this risk was that I began to ship tomatoes the last week in 

 June, or nearly three weeks ahead of the gardeners on the western side of the 

 Bay in the same latitude, and for that time I had the Baltimore market for 

 nearby tomatoes all to myself. Some years ago, here in Xorth Carolina, we 

 had an exceptionally warm March. All the earlier part of the month was 

 characterized by hot, summer-like weather, and everything got to growing and 

 the trees leaved out. Concluding that spring was here to stay, I set tomatoes 

 March 17th. On the 25th the Weather Bureau reported frost coining 

 severely that night. I went to work and bent each plant to the earth, covered 

 it with hay and then piled a mound of soil on each plant. The next morn- 

 ing the mercury stood at 21 degrees above zero, but the sun soon warmed 

 things up. The following night there was a light frost and the next day 

 I uncovered my tomatoes and found them all unhurt, and the crop was a very 

 early one. Setting as early as the first week in April we run some risk of 

 frost, but it is far better to stand ready to shovel the earth over them than 

 to keep them inside longer. The same plan can be made available in the 

 Xorth at a later period, and gardeners everywhere will find it a great advant- 

 age to get the plants in the open ground early, provided they have been well 

 hardened in the frames where they were spotted out. The skill of the gar- 

 dener is shown in getting ahead of the growers around him and getting near- 

 by tomatoes on the market in competition with the inferior fruit shipped 

 from the South. 



FERTILIZING THE TOMATO CROP. 



From the fact that the tomato in old and rich gardens sometimes grows 

 so rankly as to be an inconvenience, and noting the occasional pro- 

 ductiveness of volunteer plants that come in the corn field at times, there has 

 grown up a notion that heavy manuring is a disadvantage to the tomato. An 

 accurate study of the manurial requirements of the tomato plant at the 

 various Experiment Stations has demonstrated the fact that special fertiliza- 



