FKOST IISTJUEY TO TOMATOES. 



Agriculture at the Arlington Experimental Farm, near Washing- 

 ton, D. C. The varieties were Bonny Best, Olney Special, Earliana, 

 John Baer, Landreth, Earl}^ Michigan, Marvel, Bloomsclale, Red 

 Rock, Trucker's Favorite, New Glory, Stone, Greater Baltimore, 

 Columbia, Delaware Beauty, Livingston's Globe, Livingston's Acme, 

 Sunrise, and Sterling Castle. Since most of the tomatoes are 

 shipped while still green but practically full grown, freezing points 

 in many of the varieties were determined on full-grown green toma- 

 toes as well as ripe ones. These determinations were made by sub- 

 jecting them to an air temperature of about 15° F. As it had been 

 found by previous tests that no differences in results were obtained 

 by using portions of tomatoes instead of whole fruits and since the 

 work could be carried on more rapidly by using only portions, this 

 method was largely followed. A good representative sample of each 

 fruit was obtained by cutting with a sharp cork borer parallel to a 

 septum between, the sections, thus removing a portion of both flesh 

 and pulp. Temperature records were made by the thermoelectric 

 method, using the thermocouples described by Taylor {4) with the 

 White potentiometer. In Table 3 are shown the average freezing 

 points of the varieties mentioned, which are arranged in the order 

 of the earliness of the first picking of ripe fruit. Each freezing 

 point given represents the average for a number of different pick- 

 ings of each variety. 



Tabue 3.- 



-Average freezing points of 19 commercially groicn varieties of 

 tomatoes. 





Ripe. 



Green. 



Variety. 



Ripe. 



Green. 



Variety. 



Freez- 

 ing 

 point. 



Num- 

 ber of 

 deter- 

 mina- 

 tions. 



Freez- 

 ing 

 point. 



Num- 

 ber of 

 deter- 

 mina- 

 tions. 



Freez- 

 ing 

 point. 



Num- 

 ber of 

 deter- 

 mina- 

 tions. 



Freez- 

 ing 

 point. 



Num- 

 ber of 

 deter- 

 mina- 

 tions. 



Bonny Best 



° F. 

 30.60 

 30.59 

 30.52 

 30.57 

 30.45 

 30.67 

 30.03 

 29.99 

 30.55 

 30.06 

 29.78 



27 



5 



17 



21 



10 



20 



10 



16 



6 



8 



9 



° F. 

 30.57 



6 





° F. 

 30.31 

 30.62 

 30.31 

 30.02 

 30.58 

 30.46 



30.58 

 30.54 



21 

 16 

 20 

 5 

 5 

 14 



15 



12 



° F. 

 30.15 





OIney Special 



Greater Baltimore... 





Earliana 



30.24 

 30.53 



10 



7 







John Baer 



Delaware Beauty 



Livingston's Globe. . 

 Livineston's Acme. . 

 Greenhouse varieties: 







Landreth 







Early Michigan 



30.70 



11 









Marvel 



30.29 

 30.11 





Bloomsdale 







7 



Red Rock 



30.58 



11 



Sterling Castle. . . 

 Average 



5 





' 





New Glory 







30.46 1 



30.39 

















As shown in Table 3 the average freezing point of the 19 varieties 

 was 30.46° F., and the greatest difference in the freezing points of any 

 two varieties was 0.89° F. No consistent difference in results is 

 noticeable between early and late varieties. It is also shown that 

 full-grown green tomatoes in general did not show an}^ significant 

 difference from ripe fruit in their freezing points. The greatest dif- 

 ference was 0.29*, which is of little practical importance. 



