CHAPTER III 



General Characteristics of the Plant 



jn the native home of thfL tomat^ in-Setrth Amer- 

 ica^ the conditions_of the joil, both as regards_comj2Qsi- 

 Jion. ^and mechanical condition, of the_moisture both 

 irL_soU_ajid_ajr, and those_of_ temperature and sunlight, 

 ^are_throughout the growing season _noj^ only_ very 

 ..favorable for rapid growth, but are_uniformly and_ 

 constantly so. Under such conditions there has been 

 developed a plant which, while vigorous, tenacious of 

 life, capable of rapid growth and enormously pro- 

 ductive, is not at all hardy in the sense of ability to 

 endure untoward conditions either in the character 

 of soil, of water supply, or of temperature. A check 

 in the development because of any unfavorable con- 

 dition is never fully recovered from, but will inevit- 

 ably affect the total quantity and quality of the fruit 

 produced, even if subsequent favorable conditions re- 

 sult in the rapid and vigorous growth of the plant. 



I know of an instance where two adjoining fields 

 belonging to A and B were set with tomatoes, using 

 plants started in the same hotbed from the same lot 

 of seed. The soil was of equal natural fertility and 

 each field received about the same quantity of ma- 

 nure, though that given A's was all well decomposed 

 and worked into the soil, while that given B's was 

 fresh and raw and simply plowed in. A's field was 



