The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-01-07

west Palm Beach. Jan. 6--Here, m 3 The rnidwinter truck garden or the eastern portion of the United states, Inc tomato Is hailed as the hins a. Vegetables. It Is possible 70 hes . .,,,s- of sf. 500 from single acre ol 'o
 toas in one year It has been aone' sst,I. seems a great deal of money V r,eke on one akre. but 1t doespt soupu af all improbable to man Who pess co .ents a portion for tomato salad m his New York restaurant The man who pays 80 cents for one tomato may be inclined to the opinion tnat .ne Florida tomato grower ought to pc cvh- tent with a little less proht,
 tstorida grower, naturally. taxes ah- other view of the case
 Moi every acre of tomatoes nets si,- 500 a year. Some of them do not nake sI60. It all depends upon the man WHO ! grows the vegetables. There IS pients of good truck gardening land. but those parcels which are convenient 10 tne railroad and which have the necessary Transportation and packing LaclIiues' are not to be had for song, When sns land is purchased, it requires money and time to clear 1t and grub 1t. Then it must be prepared for seed. and ex- nensive fertilizer used in scientinc chemical proportions. Then the toma- toes are planted
 Every morning the farmer must De I'D betimes ep the lookout TOT enc mics. Man is not the only animal wno likes tomatoes. The rats are great pest. Grains of corn, carefully poilea ,s a soluble of Paris green, are scattereo hefween the rows of tomatoes. Tney flnish the rats, but there will be more rats next week and there must pc more Paris green hominy for them to eat. I Cotton seed meal, carefully mixed with arsenic. must be sifted under the plant where the weight of the tomato is bending 1t nearly to the earth. Ihat is 10 furnish the earthworms such q reast that they will die happy without going into the salad course. Then fhere are the land d-crabs; little fellows. h,,f very fond of tomato plants ana to- Ynatoes. The farmer must provide nim- xelf with A supply of little pills of cal cs.,tn carbide. each about the size of nea. Then he must peer all around un. der his precious tomato plants TOT crap holes. When he finds one. In goes pill and the hole Is stopped up with ciod. The calcium carbide. coming in contact with the moisture of the earth, forms a gas which penetrates to ail narts of MT Crabs subterranean abode ana naiulessly launches him into an- other world where there may be toma- toes. but where there Is no market for the Florida-grown variety.
 After one has done all these things, and has done them every day for weeks and after he has fought winning bat tie with the millions of weeds that vex the farmer in this land of iuxuriant vegetation; after he has gathered each tomato as carefully as If he were ta- king a baby from its crib; after he has wrapped that tomato in tissue paper and laid it in a specially prepared crate; and then, after he has shipped it away to the lobster palace zone of New York. he Is apt to think that. he de- serves a good round sum as a reward for his zeal and vigilance. It is al. most enough to reconcile one to the tarfff of so cents a portion on midwtn- ter tomato salad.
 Some growers here permit their vines to run out on the ground and they lose much by rot. Some do not fertiliSS properly. Some fail to take good care to keep out the Insect pests. Some do not pick the fruit at the exact moment Tomato growers of this class are just like all other unsuccessful farmers, bus mess or professional men, the world over They say the tomato business Is a failure. They rarely ascribe the failure to theft own shortcomings But it seems to be fact that it requires greater amount of energy. greater
 
 amount of patience to be a successful truck farmer than 1t does to be suc- >cessfuls in almost any other branch of agriculture. If the rewards are greater, the effort and the toll has been greater.
 But witness the pride of this success ful truck gardener! There he stands on tip-toe. reaching up to touch the top most leaf of the tomato plant which ts one of the A thousands growing up ct hn hos One stake bears the weight of a whole crate of beautiful tomatoes. They are worth dollars. That truck gardner has made a fortune since he came to Flor ida ten years ago. He Is rich and he knows the winters crop will add $10.- 600 more to his fortune. Is he think ing of that? Not at all. He is think ing of the fact that he can show the visitor a tomato field without a weed a tomato field without rotting fruit. a truck farm that is as clean as a Dutch canal. He is an artist, drawing living pictures on the background of a pal uetto waste with seed and fertilizer and modern methods of cultivation. Tn the finished picture he has the pride of an artist.
 If the tomato is an aristocrat among vegetables. the Florida tomato is the haughtiest of aristocrats. Next to the potato. the tomato ranks as the most valuable vegetable produced by Ameri- can truck farms. Both the tomato ana the potato are American plants they are close kin and both belong to the deadly "night-shade" family
 Within the memory of thousands of living Americans the tomato was re- garded as poisonous and wholly unfit for food. It was often grown as an ornamental plant, and it's rich red fruit gloried in the name of Hove an ple." Then the people found it was good to eat its popularity grew and the tomato became commercially i'm portant.
 Tn six States. New Jersey. Delaware. Maryland, Ono. Indana and Missouri, the business of growing tomatoes for canning purposes is a considerable and a profitable one. Every other az ricultural State of the Central West is paying more and more attention to this crop. Twenty years ago the can ned crop amounted to 72.OO0, 900 cans Now it Is more than 32o.0OO.OOO cans a year.
 The average yield per acre of to- nnatoes grown for cannsries in the