CHAPTER IX. 



TOMATO. 



NEXT to lettuce, the tomato is probably the most im- 

 portant vegetable grown in American forcing-houses. Its 

 only close competitor for this honor is the cucumber. 

 Winter tomatoes always find a ready sale at prices rang- 

 ing from 25 to 75 cents per pound. Even after the Florida 

 tomatoes come upon the market in late winter, a good 

 quality of house-grown fruits continues to sell well in every 

 good market. The crop is one which demands a high 

 temperature, an abundance of sunlight, and great care in 

 the growing, but the profits, under good management, are 

 correspondingly high. 



The house. A light and tight house is essential, and it 

 must be high enough to allow of training the plants (that is, 

 at least 5 feet above the soil in all parts). Our preference 

 is a sash-bar frame house, something like those shown in 

 Figs. 12 and 13. A north-and-south house would be pref- 

 erable, probably, because of the more even distribution of 

 light. Tomatoes may also be grown for a late spring crop 

 in a carnation or lettuce house (see page 98). 



The importance of direct and strong sunlight was well 

 illustrated in one of our experiments. At one end of the 

 house is a low building which shaded a part of the plants 

 after two or three o'clock. The plants within 3 or 4 feet 

 of this building, which were thus deprived of direct sunlight 

 for half the afternoon, bore no fruits whatever, although 

 they were strong and vigorous. At 6 and 7 feet away some 

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