138 



BIGGLE GARDEN BOOK 



quickly. "Peach," Yellow "Plum," Red "Cherry," 

 "Husk" and similar tomatoes are sometimes grown 

 for preserves or as novelties. 



Marketing Tomatoes : Gathering should be done 

 two or three times a week sometimes every day 

 only picking the fruits that are ready each time. If 

 to be shipped some distance, pick them when they are 

 just beginning to color even sooner for very long 

 distances. For near-by market let them color all 

 over, or nearly so, on the vines, but they should not 

 be over-ripe and soft. Choice early tomatoes for 



distant shipment are 

 usually packed in 

 crates holding six 

 baskets (similar to a 

 Georgia peach crate), 

 and each tomato is 

 wrapped in paper. Or 

 sometimes flat boxes 

 carrying two layers 

 of wrapped fruits are 

 used. Later tomatoes 

 from near-by points 

 are packed in a variety of packages bushel crates, 

 half-bushel baskets, third-barrel baskets, etc. Toma- 

 toes for canning factories are best handled in the 

 slatted bushel boxes recommended for potatoes ; the 

 factories contract to pay a certain price "per ton." 



If frost threatens before the tomatoes and pep- 

 pers are all gathered, says Harriet (leaning over my 

 shoulder as I write), cover them with cloths or 

 papers and save them ; or pull the plants and hang 

 them under a shed; or cover with straw where they 

 stand; or pick the larger green tomatoes and let 

 them ripen in the sun indoors ; or wrap each green 



APPLYING FERTILIZER TO MANURED 

 HILLS IN FURROWS, FOR TOMA- 

 TOES (SEE PAGE 136) 



