ESSENTIALS FOR DEVELOPMENT 3I 



Good drainage is essential not only to the best growth 

 of the plant but to the production of any fruit of good 

 quality. So important is this feature that though it 

 can be readily proved that, other things being equal, 

 the tomato will give larger yield and better fruit on 

 well drained clay loam than on sandy soil, yet it is 

 more generally and more successfully planted on sandy 

 lands simply because they are usually better drained 

 and on this account give better crops. While excess 

 of water in the soil is most injurious to the young 

 and growing plant, an abundance of it at the time 

 the fruit swells and ripens is ver}- essential, and a want 

 of it at that time results in small and imperfect fruit 

 of poor flavor. Excessive moisture in the air is just 

 as injurious as at the root. In my personal experience 

 I have known of more failures in tomato crops, at 

 least in the northern states, to come from a season of 

 persistent rains and damp atmosphere at the time 

 when the plants should be in bloom and setting fruit 

 than from any other climatic cause. 



Food supply. — The tomato is not a gross feeder 

 nor is the crop an exhaustive one, but the plant is very 

 particular as to its food supply. It is an epicure 

 among plants and demands that its food shall not only 

 be to its taste in quality but that it be well served. In 

 order for the plant to do its best, or even well, it is 

 essential that the food elements be in the right pro- 

 portions and readily available. If there is a deficiency 

 of any single element there will be but a meager 

 crop of fruit, no matter how abundant the supply of 

 the others. An over-supply of an element, especially 

 nitrogen, is hardly less injurious and will actually les- 



