44 TOMATO CULTURE 



may give even a smaller yield of fruit because of its 

 excessive use. Again, the proportions of the various 

 food elements vary greatly in different locations. 



Professor Halstead finds that in his section of Xew 

 Jersey the liberal use of nitrate of soda increases the 

 yield and improves the quality, while in some localities 

 of New York, Ohio, and the West, growers find that 

 the yield of first-class fruit was actually lessened by 

 its use. In some sections of the South liberality in 

 the use of phosphates determines the amount and the 

 quality of the crop, while at other points it seems to 

 be of little value. In my own experience the liberal 

 application of potash, particularly in the form of wood 

 ashes, has more often given good results than the ap- 

 plication of any other special fertilizer. 



If called upon to name the exact quantity and kind 

 of manure for tomatoes, without any knowledge of 

 the soil or its previous condition, I would say 8 to 10 

 tons of good stable manure worked into the soil as 

 late as possible in the fall or during the winter and 

 early spring and 300 to 600 pounds of commercial 

 fertilizer, of such composition as to furnish 2 per cent, 

 nitrogen, 6 per cent, phosphoric acid and 8 per cent, 

 potash scattered and worked into the row about the 

 time that the plants are set. The use of a large pro- 

 portion of nitrogen tends to rank growth of vine and 

 soft, watery fruit. The use of a large proportion of 

 phosphoric acid tends to produce soft fruit with less 

 distinctly acid flavor; of potash, to smaller growth of 

 vine and firm but more acid fruit. 



I think that even more than with most crops it will 

 be well for the farmer to experiment to determine the 



