FIELD CULTURE OF TOMATOES 269 



sprinkle lightly once or twice a day until the plants have appeared at the 

 surface. Where the surface covering has been used water may be applied 

 through it. Care must be taken not to have the soil too wet, for the young 

 plants are very liable to injury. Where very early plants are desired, 

 growers sometimes heat the water before applying it. After the seedlings 

 appear watering should be done very carefully and should be governed 

 entirely by the condition of the plants and there is more danger from too 

 much than too little irrigation. During cloudy weather, the beds should 

 not be watered unless absolutely necessary and the sprinkling should be 

 done in the morning so the surface and the tops of the plants may dry 

 before night. 



After the seedlings are from two to four inches in height they should 

 be thinned to two to five inches between plants; the beds carefully weeded 

 and if in drills, the soil between the rows thoroughly stirred. A week or so 

 before the plants are to be taken from the beds, watering should be stopped 

 and if they have been grown under some protection, this should gradually 

 be removed in order that they may become "hardened off," for if the plants 

 are removed when they are growing rapidly, it is difficult to get them estab- 

 lished without seriously checking their growth. A few hours before remov- 

 ing the plants, the beds should be thoroughly wet to aid in preserving the 

 fibrous roots. If the plants have grown too large, the tops should be cut 

 off to about six or eight inches from the ground before being transplanted. 

 An experienced grower may be able to talce up plants properly by pulling 

 them up, but it is best to use a shovel or trowel, cutting off the roots about 

 four inches below the surface and taking up with adhering earth. The 

 plants may either be placed in pans or in baskets, or rolled in sacks and 

 carried to the field, care being taken not to expose their roots to the air 

 longer than is necessary. 



Field Planting of Tomatoes. Preparation of land for tomatoes 

 should begin early in the rainy season, as for beans, corn or melons, 

 to render the soil absorptive of moisture and to secure good deep 

 tilth. Re-working in the spring, and cultivation until it is safe to 

 plant out the tomatoes, keeps the soil in fine condition, saves moist- 

 ure and insures a crop at minimum cost. Crops are often grown 

 on spring plowing alone, but it is an uphill task, and attended by 

 great risk of failure, if spring rains are scant, as they often are. 



Field planting is generally done by hand, sometimes at the 

 intersection of cross-markings, but often with less care, by placing 

 the plants firmly on the side of a furrow and covering with another 

 furrow. Some large growers use the transplanting machine men- 

 tioned for sweet potatoes, and it works well when the soil is in 

 good condition. A special note made of this machine as it was 

 seen at work is as follows: 



On a ten-acre field in Solano county three men were planting tomatoes 

 early in May, as fast as the horses could walk. A middle-break plow is 

 fastened between two wheels at the end of a wagon tongue. Following this 

 is a knife between two four-foot wheels, which digs deep in the ground and 

 is flared into two blades behind, to leave an opening for the plants. A barrel 

 above the middle-break supplies water through a hose to this opening. One 

 man drives, two men ride seats close to the ground so they can take the 

 tomato plants from the platforms in front of them and place them in the 

 freshly moistened opening as the machine travels. Two curved knives fol- 

 low the cutter knife to rake the dirt tight up to the plant. The tomatoes 

 were being set about five feet apart each way and about six inches deep. 

 They promptly wilted in the noonday sun, but recovered the first night. 



