PKOCESS OF RIPENING IN THE TOMATO. 6 
conduct experimental work with material grown under the con- 
ditions peculiar to Florida. 
The quality of a tomato is largely determined by the amount and 
kind of sugars, plant acids, and vitamins which are present. It was 
obvious, therefore, that the method of approaching the problem would 
be a chemical one. If the chemical composition of vine-ripened toma- 
toes were known for a number of stages in the process of ripening, 
the data would afford a criterion for judging commercially ripened 
fruit. 
GROWING AND HANDLING TOMATOES IN THE FIELD. 
In the region about Miami, Fla., the seed beds are prepared as 
early as the middle of September and are planted at intervals until 
the early part of February in order to insure a steady supply of seed- 
lings. In transplanting seedlings they are placed full length in the 
furrow, the roots are covered with a handful of moist well-rotted 
stable manure, and finally the whole stem, but not the leaves, is cov- 
ered with loose soil. Commercial fertilizer is often used with the 
manure. 
The soil upon which tomatoes are grown is essentially of an ever- 
glade type and is covered with water during a portion of the summer. 
For the past few years the moist soil and the danger of frost have 
been serious handicaps to very early planting. To insure a crop of 
tomatoes in case of frost many growers plant a portion of their 
fields in hills. The seeds are planted over stable manure and com- 
mercial fertilizer. After the seedlings appear the hills are thinned to 
one plant, which is allowed to grow to 6 inches or more in height and 
then bent down and covered with soil. The plants are 2 to 3 feet apart 
in rows 6 feet apart. 
Commercial fertilizers are applied throughout the growing season 
up to picking time. Where only one side of the row is cultivated 
and the other allowed to grow in weeds, upon which the plants later 
lean, the fertilizer is applied in furrows on the side which is cultivated. 
About a week or 10 days after the plants are set out a small handful 
of the fertilizer is placed on one side of each plant. Sometimes it 
is covered with soil, but generally it is left uncovered. Ten days or 
two weeks after the first application, more fertilizer is applied be- 
tween the plants in the original planting furrow. A shallow furrow 
is then turned to cover this fertilizer and also to support the plants 
better. The third application is placed in the furrow made when 
the second application was covered. The quantity is generally 
larger than the first and second applications and is covered by a 
new furrow. The fourth and final application is made in the same 
way. Where the fertilizer is applied at one side only, two rows are 
planted close together and between them weeds are allowed to 
grow. Where fertilizer is applied to both sides of the plants the 
