These rank with the standard vegetables, such as corn, potatoes, etc.,
and yet it is not many years since they were grown in flower gardens
only, the brilliant color of their fruit being then considered quite
a pleasing novelty. Now, by the introduction of the canning industry,
there is not a day in the year when they are absent from our table.
Their culture is of the simplest, being largely a matter of soil and
manure and good early plants, to be set out as soon as the weather
will permit in the spring. The seed is sown in hotbeds, from the
middle of March to the middle of April; if possible, they should be
transplanted, when about two inches high, to another sash, where they
may stand three or four inches apart. When there is not room for this,
the seed should be sown thinly in drills four inches apart, and when
well started, should be thinned out to two inches apart in the row. The
hotbeds should be given plenty of air on warm days that the plants may
be stocky and thrifty when planting-time comes. They should not be set
out until the temperature is over 60° at night, or until the oak trees
are well out in leaf. They should have plenty of room, at least three
feet in the row and four feet between the rows, and for an ordinary
family at least four rows should be planted. Two rows should be of the
earliest and two with plants sown a month later, for in some varieties
there is a tendency to die off after raising one crop, though constant
picking as fast as they ripen, and not allowing surplus ones to remain
on the vines, will greatly prolong the bearing period; so much so, that
in most years I make but one planting. The earliest hotbed plants will
begin to ripen fruit the last week in July or the first in August,
while, if you make a hill, as for corn, about May 10th, and put in a
dozen or so seed where you want the plant to stand, pulling all out but
the strongest one when they get a good start, you can have this second
lot in bearing about the last of August, without the use of glass or
the labor of transplanting.
The young plants must be thoroughly cultivated and hoed; when hoeing,
the dirt should be loosened right up to the plant, and when it has
been worked loose and made fine should be drawn up to the stem, two
or three inches in height. It frequently happens, when the season is
late, that the plants have grown a foot, or even two feet, in height
or length. This is no disadvantage, but rather a help, if treated in
the following manner: A gutter two or three inches in depth and nearly
the length of the plant, is scraped under the planting line with the
hoe, and the plants laid lengthwise in this and covered over, all but
about five or six inches of the top, which is bent straight upward and
afterward treated as though it were a plant of that size; the long stem
underground immediately forms roots and assists in feeding the growth
of the plant.
The ground should be well manured, but if the soil is light it can
be overdone, as the plant will run too much to vine and be late
in producing fruit. I have found that, though there is a general
impression that tomatoes do best on a light, sandy soil, the best
tomatoes I have ever raised have been on my poorest and heaviest
ground. On a plot of ground where the plow turned up the yellow clay
at a depth of five or six inches, I have had the ground covered;
covered so that you could hardly put your foot down anywhere in the
patch without treading on a tomato, and not a cracked or rotten one
among them. At another time I planted all the plants there were at
that time of the now famous Turner Hybrid, in a patch of clay soil
where young nursery trees had been grown for five years, and you can
ask any nursery-man how much that leaves in the soil. Yet this patch
produced tomatoes which astonished all beholders and led to its being
placed at once upon the market; and right here I would say that the
flavor and appearance of this variety have been so fine with me that I
have obtained double price for my tomatoes since I have been growing
it. In the last ten years I have had the handling of the first stock
of three new tomatoes, each one of which has seemed near perfection
when originated, yet each has been much superior to its predecessor.
I mention this only to show how the craft of “assisting nature,” or
gardening, is always progressing and gaining new interest in the mind
of the gardener. There is a constant charm about it, that, once it
takes possession of you, never lets go.
If the full-sized, green and partly ripe tomatoes are picked off when
there is danger of frost, and placed under the sash of the cold frame,
or on the floor of the cellar, they will ripen gradually, and though
not of very fine quality, may be had fresh almost until Christmas; they
must, of course, be entirely green when picked, to consume so much time
in ripening.
If some plants of the golden or yellow varieties are planted, they
will add greatly to the attractiveness of the dish when mingled with
the red ones, served sliced in the ordinary manner. If you save your
own seed, the earliest ripened specimens should be saved for that
purpose, and should be of perfect shape and evenly ripened, with no
core, crack or rot about them. The easiest way to clean this seed is,
take a small box, knock the top and bottom off, and nail some wire fly
screening over the bottom; take the fresh tomatoes, not rotten ones, as
are frequently used, and squeeze the seeds into this sieve, throwing
the pulp and flesh away; the seed can be washed free and clean by
running clean water upon them, keep them constantly stirred and pick
out the bits of pulp as they become free and float upon the top of the
water, while the water and finer particles will pass off through the
screening. When clean allow all the water to drain off and spread the
seeds thinly on a smooth board or cloth in the sun; they should be
stirred frequently, to prevent their adhering to each other when dry.
If seeds are washed out in this manner and carefully dried, you can
depend on every one growing, while from those saved in the ordinary
manner, from tomatoes that have been allowed to heat and rot, sometimes
not one seed in a hundred will germinate.