TOMATOES 



201 



ket in Rochester is so far from the center of the city and so 

 near one side of the city the people on the other side of the 

 city do not have a chance to get to the market. 



President Greffrath : I was much interested in hearing 

 the conditions as they exist in Rochester repeated, although 

 I was quite familiar with them — how the Market Gardeners' 

 Association of Monroe County compelled the city of Rochester 

 to come to their terms. It is just another one of those many 

 illustrations that have been presented to us here the last two 

 days of what cooperation can do, and it shows us how slack 

 we are if we do not grasp the opportunity. Let us not go 

 away from here without making conditions so, that we can 

 cope with these obstacles that come in our way as an or- 

 ganized body. 



President Greffrath : The subject for the hour is toma- 

 toes, and it is to be taken up 'by a man who has had wide ex- 

 perience along this line, Mr. A. E. Wilkinson, who will now 

 address us. 



TOMATOES. 

 Albert E. Wilkinson, Ithaca, New York. 



Last year at the meeting I talked on the subject of cab- 

 bages. In talking, I mentioned the variation which existed 

 between the seeds from different seedsmen. It has been found 

 that in the case of certain cabbages there was a difference of 

 thirteen or fourteen tons in yield as compared with seed from 

 other sources, but all grown under the same conditions. 



I find on investigation that the same difference exists with 

 tomato seeds. I am sorry that I have not full data regard- 

 ing Bonny Best, Earliana, Chalk's Early Jewel, and other 

 well known varieties. In the West there is an experiment 

 station that has tested for a series of years the Stone variety 

 of tomatoes. They have found in testing twelve strains from 

 twelve seedsmen that there is a difference of over three and 

 one-half tons per acre, according to the place where the seed 

 was bought. Three and one-half tons at ten dollars per ton 

 means thirty-five dollars to the man who is raising tomatoes 

 for the cannery. 



