March, 1912 
HOW TO RAISE TOMATOES IN THE 
HOME GARDEN 
By CHARLES K. FARRINGTON 
NE of the most productive, and also 
one of the easiest crops for the 
amateur gardener to raise is the tomato. 
For the small country or city garden, 
few, if any other vegetables will be so 
profitable to grow. Strange to say many 
people do not obtain the best results 
when raising tomatoes. This is astonishing 
when one considers that to do so requires 
little or no expert knowledge. The writer 
has found that what is not known is how 
to prevent decay; also how to prevent the 
fruit ripening too fast; and again, the best 
sized tomato to raise. He has experi- 
mented for the past twelve years, and now 
always secures a good crop no matter what 
the season may be. By this I do not mean 
to say I do not obtain more tomatoes some 
years than others, but I always have a suf- 
ficient number for our household from two 
dozen plants. For the average family from 
twenty-four to thirty plants will be found 
sufficient if the following methods of rais- 
ing them are followed. I will describe first 
how the seeds are sown, and then take up 
each detail in order. 
THE PLANTS 
Always raise your own plants. An ex- 
ception to this rule there may be, if you 
live near a seedsman who sells plants raised 
from his own seeds. But the average 
plants sold throughout the country do not 
produce the fruit one can obtain if he buys 
his own seeds from a reliable dealer, and 
raises his own plants. Plant the seeds in 
good earth in a shallow box, and place the 
box in a sunny window in a warm room. 
The kitchen is a good room until the plants 
are about one inch high. Then keep in 
a room where the temperature averages 
sixty degrees, and on pleasant days give 
as much air as possible. If you can keep 
them out of doors under glass, so much the 
better. It is important to see that they do 
not grow too fast. If kept in a warm room 
they will do so. It is not the size of the 
plant, but the age of it that determines 
when it will bear fruit. This was explained 
to me by an old and very successful market 
gardener who said, ‘““Never mind the size 
of the plant if you wish early fruit. Be 
sure that it is old. Plant (in the vicinity 
of New York), the middle of February.” 
I have followed this advice for the past 
eight years with the best success, and al- 
ways obtain early fruit. Do not buy seeds 
advertised to produce the exceptionally 
large varieties. Such tomatoes are apt to 
be misshapen and the skin is also likely to 
be wrinkled. A tomato of the medium size 
will prove the most profitable to raise. 
SETTING OUT THE PLANTS IN THE GARDEN 
Never allow the tomato plant to run 
along the ground. Remember that it will 
climb if trained up a support, and so it is 
really a vine. In certain parts of California 
where the climate permits it to live for 
several years, it often attains large pro- 
portions, astonishing the easterner, who al- 
ways thinks of it as a small plant which 
runs along the ground. Some people make 
a small support from a barrel hoop and 
three stakes-to hold the hoop, but such a 
device (or others similar to it), cannot 
compare with the pole method. Procure 
straight lima bean poles of about eight or 
ten feet in length and set them in the 
ground in rows, the rows to be four feet 
apart and the poles three feet apart 
in the rows. Plant one tomato at the 
base of each pole, as close to it as possible. 
As the top of it grows upwards cut off 
every side shoot and allow only the single 
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S38 
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