TOMATO. 87 
a tight barrel or a tank to undergo fermentation. 
This will take from two to three days, depending on 
ripeness of seed as well as temperature; the warmer the 
temperature, the quicker fermentation takes place. <A 
frequent stirring must be given the mass while fer- 
mentation is going on, otherwise seed at the top is 
liable to become blackened. 
When seed has been properly fermented, it may be 
washed in a vat, similar to the one described for pepper 
and after the same manner. 
Some growers place barrels in handy rows in the 
field where picking is being done. On top of one of 
the barrels a small, portable hand mill is set for grind- 
ing the fruit. The pickers empty their buckets in the 
mill, while one person does the grinding. When a barrel 
is about three-fourths full, the mill which may easily be 
carried by one man, is removed to the next barrel, and 
so on until picking is completed. The barrels are then 
hauled on a sled or a wagon to a shed or some shel- 
tered place convenient to water, where fermentation 
of the ground pulp is allowed to take place in the bar- 
rels. It is contended that fermentation is much better 
done in a smaller mass in barrels than in troughs. 
However, some larger growers use a trough which is 
made about 20 feet long, 3 feet wide, 14 feet deep, 
placed ona platform raised several feet from the ground. 
One grower, whose crop is grown on about 100 acres, 
uses ten of such troughs, having them placed side by 
side, under shelter, near the water supply. A gateway 
is made at the end of each trough to let out the pulp 
when it is to be washed. The tomatoes are hauled in 
wagons from the fields to the troughs, the fruit being 
then ground in a hand mill set on top of a trough. The 
washing tank of the growers in question is made 4 feet 
