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 tom.ato 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) 



