LESSONS OX TOMATOES FOE RURAL SCHOOLS. 5 
suited for the home garden, while the others are of good quality and 
are especially suited for canning. 
Study questions: What varieties of the commercial group are 
grown ? Which have been most successful 1 What variety is grown 
by the canning-club members ? Have at hand a few specimens of 
each variety found in the community. Compare them as to size, 
shape, color. Record answers in a notebook. 
References—Farmers' Buls.'220, pp. 5, 6, 15, 18; and 642, p. 11. 
Practical exercises. — Have each member of the class bring a few 
specimens of each variety of tomatoes grown in the community. 
These should be used in connection with the study questions. Re- 
quire the pupils to practice until they are able to recognize each 
variety at sight. 
Correlations. — Language : Have members of the class describe the 
fruits of the different varieties of tomatoes found in the community. 
Drawing: Require the pupils to make drawings of the tomatoes 
brought to class for study. 
LESSON THREE. 
TOPIC: HARVESTING. 
MONTH: SEPTEMBER. 
Lesson outline. — Condition of fruit: If intended for home use, 
local market, or canning the fruit should be allowed to fully mature 
on the vine; if for distant market, the fruit should be picked asjsoon 
as it begins to turn red. 
Picking: Exercise care in handling to avoid bruising or otherwise 
injuring the fruit. Remove stems to avoid puncturing the ripe fruit. 
Packing: Rough, cracked, and deformed fruits should be separated 
from those intended for market. The best prices are received for 
those most nearly uniform in size, shape, and color. For a fancy 
product wrap each fruit in thin paper and pack in half-peck peach or 
tomato baskets. Fruit for canning should be thoroughly ripe but 
not soft. Underripe tomatoes give a straw-colored product. Over- 
ripe give a mushy product. 
For seed, carefully select those plants on which the largest propor- 
tion of the crop is of desirable form and color, and save the best fruit 
from each plant separately. Such seed will give much better results 
than that from superior individual fruits from plants on which much 
of the fruit was inferior. Let the fruit get fully ripe, quite past con- 
dition for table use. Squeeze out the pulp and seed, throwing away 
the skins and flesh. Allow the seed to stand in a warm place for 1 to 3 
days, according to the weather conditions, then add four or five times its 
bulk of water. Stir vigorously, allow it to settle, then carefully pour 
off the water carrying what pulp it will, and repeat until the seed is 
