YIELD AND VARIETIES 293 



when the frost came picked thirty-four pounds of green ones. This 

 vine covered a space of nearly eight feet square ; it grew on the edge 

 of a ditch used for running water to blackberry vines. It was an 

 instance of ample irrigation by seepage. 



Varieties. California grows all the many improved tomatoes 

 with which American seedsmen have enriched our vegetable list, 

 and new varieties should always be looked for in California seeds- 

 men's catalogues. They always offer choice yellow varieties for 

 preserving. Varieties which include those commercially most 

 prominent, are as follows : 



Sparks Earliana: very early, tall growing; fruit large, smooth, scarlet; 

 flesh deep red, solid. 



Chalk's Early Jewel : nearly as early ; fruit large, smooth, regular in form 

 and ripening evenly; bright scarlet; continuous bearing. 



Dwarf Champion: low growing, upright; fruit medium, pink to purplish 

 red, according to locality; popular in the interior heat, especially at the south 

 and in the foothills of central California. 



Stone: tall and fruitful; fruit large, smooth, uniform, bright red, solid; 

 widely popular in southern California for market and shipping. A Dwarf 

 Stone, resembling Dwarf Champion in growth is also a good shipping 

 variety at the south. 



Boulder : resembling Stone, but much larger fruit ; popular in the coast 

 district of southern California. 



Ponderosa: a strong growing vine; fruit very large, somewhat irregular 

 and variable in color, usually light red ; flesh thick but not always firm ; chiefly 

 grown in Sonoma county for canning and market. 



Trophy: vigorous and productive; fruit deep red, somewhat irregular, 

 solid and firm in the true type, with ring-mark at apex ; chiefly grown for 

 canning in Alameda county, displacing Stone. 



There is an opinion current among California growers that 

 even the best of the eastern improved tomatoes are still farther im- 

 proved by California growing conditions if constant selection is 

 practiced to preserve the best types. For instance the "Trophy" 

 is very largely grown as a late tomato for canners' use, and planters 

 insist upon securing California grown seed, but careless seed saving 

 has given us Trophies widely different from the true type and 

 very inferior. 



