36 TOMATO CULTURE 



or sandy loam surface soil overlying a well-drained 

 clay sub-soil. I would prefer one which was originally 

 covered with a heavy growth of beech and maple tim- 

 ber, though I should want it to be "old land" at the 

 time. Tomatoes do not succeed as well on prairie 

 soils, particularly if they are at all heavy, as they do 

 on timbered lands, but one need not despair of a 

 profitable crop of tomatoes on any soil which would 

 give a fair crop of corn or of cotton. 



For early-ripening fruit. — Sometimes the profit and 

 satisfaction from a tomato crop depend more largely 

 upon the earliness of ripening than upon the amount 

 of yield or cost of growing. In such cases a warm, 

 sandy loam, or even a distinctly sandy soil, is to be 

 preferred, as this is apt to be warmer and the fruit 

 will be matured much earlier on it than on a heavier 

 soil. It is essential, however, that it be well drained 

 and warm. Often lands classed as sandy are really 

 colder than some of those classed as clay, and such 

 soils should be carefully avoided if early maturity 

 is important. 



For the home garden. — Here we seldom have a 

 choice, but no one need despair and abandon effort, 

 no matter what the soil may be, for it is quite possible 

 to raise an abundant home supply on any soil and that, 

 too, without inordinate cost and labor. Some of the 

 most prolific plants and the finest fruits I have ever 

 seen were grown in a village lot which five years before 

 had been filled in to a depth of 3 to 10 feet with clay, 

 coal ashes and refuse from a brick and coal yard. In 

 another instance magnificent fruit was grown in a 

 garden where the soil was originally made up chiefly 



