1286 Tur VecetasLte Inpustry 1n New York State 
it does not yield as heavily. The chief objection to the Peerless 
is that the fruit tends to be too small. With an English type of 
tomato like the Peerless, one must feed the plant heavily in order 
to get good-sized fruit, and the fruit clusters must be thinned to 
six or seven fruits. 
The tomato plants are started in practically the same way as 
the cucumber plants, with the exception that the seed is sown 
more thickly in the drill. Also, the seedlings are usually pricked 
out two by two inches in other plats before going to three- or four- 
inch clay pots. It requires from ten to twelve weeks from time 
of sowing seed to time for the plants to be placed in the perma- 
nent bed, and about two months more for the plant to bear mature 
fruit. 
The spacing distances vary greatly, most men allowing about 
four or five square feet to a plant. The single stem system of 
training is practiced almost entirely, all side shoots or laterals 
being pinched off as soon as they appear. 
The disease which is giving most trouble with tomatoes is the 
leaf mold or leaf blight, caused by a fungus, Cladosporium fulvum. 
This fungus works on the lower leaves of the plants first, pro- 
ducing dirty, grayish-brown, moldy or velvety spots on the under- 
sides. Yellow spots appear on the upper sides of the leaves. 
Later, the entire leaf turns black, shrivels and dies. If this dis- 
ease does not appear until the crop is half gathered, it will do little 
harm. If it occurs early, the lower foliage should be sprayed with 
bordeaux mixture 4-4-50. A few men in the state were able to 
check this disease in their tomato houses this past fall by spraying 
early enough. 
The fruit is harvested when it matures and most of it is mar- 
keted locally, although during the fall, growers who are successful 
ship to New York city and Philadelphia. 
The yields and returns vary greatly with different growers. 
One grower using the Peerless variety secures an average yield in 
spring of ten pounds per plant, or a little over five tons to a house 
180 by 30 feet. This is exceptionally high. Most growers do not 
average more than five or six pounds of fruit per plant. 
In spring tomatoes usually sell for from ten to fifteen cents a 
pound, sometimes going as high as twenty cents in very early 
spring. In late fall they command higher prices. 
