Santa Fe new Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1898-1951, 1899-06-15
A Big Train Load of Canned Tomatoes
Was Shipped Last Year and This Sea-
son a Big Shipment Of Peppers
Will Be Made.

oA ~ Ian AAoAA Va AIS W
putting in a pumping plant. Mr.. Rou-
ault has made a speciality of tomatoes
because he found them the most certain
crop. He Is now turning to green pep
pers, inc believes they will yet prove
the most profitable for canning. He has
had no trouble about marketing his
product. Most of it goes to the local or
nearby markets. One firm took $4,000
worth of his tomatoes last year. He
has a good demand from Chicago and
Los Angeles for peppers. Last year he
put up 600 cases Of peppers, and had or
ders for five or six times as many. One
Chicago house wants his entire output.
One advantage of handling peppers is
that the canning season lasts twice as
long as that for tomatoes. Heavy work
in tomatoes is from about September
Is to October Is, though a great deal
is done before and after those days.
The tomatoes thus far wasted in the
canning factory, if worked up into cat
| sup and chowder, would pay the entire
cost Of growing the tomatoes. During
the height of the season the factory
ships daily a car load of 500 cases of
two dozen 3-pound ans
Mr.. Rouault pays other growers so
! cents per 100 pounds for ripe tomatoes.
lie estimates the cost of growing at rs
cents per 100 pounds. A fair yield is
$4,000 to 10000 pounds per acre. One
piece of about two and a half acres
yielded nearly 10000 pounds. In the
east Gamers pay only 20 to 80 cents per
| 100 pounds, and in Colorado IL to 10
cents. Mr.. Rouault pays 81 cents per
dozen cans for peeling, slicing and fill
ing the cans. In Colorado they pay 4
cents, and in the east 8 cents. The Las
Cruces tomatoes often weigh a pound
to a pound and a half each, two toma-
toes filling a can. Mr.. Rouault has
tried many varieties OF tomatoes, and
prefers the Livingstone, a large, firm,
smooth fruit. The Perfection, Favorite
and Beauty do fairly we'll.
The cultivation Of tomatoes is not
difficult. All the stable manure that
can be procured is hauled on the
ground in the winter, and all the ground
plowed twice. At the last blowing the
ground is ridged, each ridge 6 feet from
the next ridge on one side, and s or 9
feet on the other. After the vines devel-
OPP they are trained to fill the S-foot
space, leaving the 6-foot space for irri-
cation. The ground is plowed three or
four times a summer. After the first
ridging a homemade lister, drawn by
a horse, is I'll through, making a fur
row about an inch deep along the side
of each ridge.
The ground has previously been fri
gated, and the furrow Is run just above
the water line. The seed is dropped by
hand, three or -four seeds in a hill, 3 or
4 feet between the hills. When the
plants are S or 6 inches high they are
thinned to one or two in a hill, and the
vacant places filled in by transplanting.
Not much irrigation is necessary, for
Mr.. Rouault irrigates only once a
month. Two pests must be fought-to-
bacco worms, which are picked off by
hand, and grasshoppers, which eat the
foliage early in the season, and for
which paris green spray is a good in
sectitide.
When very small, plants suffer less
from frost than when larger. The larg-
er plants turn yellow and pale from the
later frosts, but generally recover.
Mr.. Rouault owns about 200 acres of
land, and leases much more. Part of his
land Is an old river bed. He has dam
med his channel in two places, so as to
store water when the ditch is full for
use during summer. His reservoir is
| about a mile long, six or eight rods
wide and five or six feet deep. He uses
a large centrifugal pump, run by a fif-
teen horsepower portable engine and
boiler, using wood for fuel.
About thirty men are at present m
ployed in Mr.. Rouault's 300 acres Of
tomatoes. In the canning season he
employs about 100 people. The canning
plant has. thus far cost him $45O0. It
includes soldering machine and steam
process kettles, with crates, cranes and
necessary tools. He gets his cans ready
for filling and Gaping in carload lots
from Kansas City and Baltimore, but
contemplates putting up machinery for
manufacturing his own cans. The g.
pound can of tomatoes retails for Is
cents, 2-pound can for 10 cents, which
is above the highest retail price Of the
best brands elsewhere. The 1-pound
cans of peppers retail for Is cents; half
pound cans for IL cents.
For growing peppers the ground is
fitted about the same as for tomatoes.
The rows are 4 feet apart, and hills 2
feet apart in the row. The seed is put
in at the same time as the tomatoes,
and the plants thinned to three or four
in the hill. The canning Of green pep
pers a be begun in July. Mr.. Rouault
has about fifty acres in peppers this
year. Last year he had only three
acres. The American varieties Of pep
pers are not spicy enough. He plants
the large Mexican pepper, which has a
sweet taste and is quite spicy. Mr.. Rou-
ault says that the growing and canning
Of asparagus, peas and other vegeta-
bles would pay handsomely. He also
cans peaches, apples, pears, grapes and
other fruits in such quantities a. he
can get. The difficulty Is to get enough.
Taken altogether, the Mesilla valley
canning factory Is one OF the most Inn
portant enterprises v e undertaken in
the Rio Grande valley. and IL bound to
have a marked influence on the devel-
opment Of the agricultural and horti-