The Hattiesburg news. (Hattiesburg, Miss.) 1908-1917, 1915-04-08
PRIZE TOMATO GIRL
TELLS OWN STORY
IOWA WOMAN ENCOUNTERS DIFF.
FACULTIES IN MAKING NORTH
ERN STATES RECORD.

Washington, D. c., April S.-Miss
Eloise Parsons of Clarinda, Iowa, is
the young woman whose record in the
Department of Agriculture's garden
and canning clubs was the best of the
thousands made by members in the 33
Northern states. Miss Parsons OBJ
tanned yield of 531S pounds of toma-
toes from her tenth-acre plot. Her
costs were 1851, and her net profits
were $115.57. Her costs cover every
item of expense in raising the crop,
including rent OF land, her own time
ESTIMATED at 10 cents an hour) fer
tilizers and sprays. She describes
some of her difficulties in obtaining
this result as follows:
Il decided | would try and have ripe
tomatoes very early and so obtain
good prices for them. So in the latter
part of February | planted the early
variety in three boxes which placed
on shelf in front of the south win
dows in the dining room. In short
time they came through and grew
rapidly. But they began to grow tall
and spindly, so in the latter part OF
March | transplanted part of them into
small pasteboard boxes, one plant in
| each. By doing this | could move
them to the open without disturbing
the roots, and hindering the develop
ment of the plants. Then as soon as
it was warm enough I set the rest on
cold frame, four inches apart each
way. In the first of April l planted
the last variety in the hot bed. Those
in the cold frame and in the paste
board boxes developed great amount
of roots and were very strong, some in
blossom, when 1 transplanted them to
the open on the 22nd of May. The
plants in the hot bed did not develop
such strong roots, and because of this
fact, and also that it was very dry.
| lost quite a few of them when j
| transplanted them. After filling in
for the fourth time few vacant
places still remaining, as it was almost
| impossible to get them started because
of - early drought. In all had over
900 PLANTS.
81 hoed them after each rain and
| xx,L<
we moved to this place this spring,
and the garden was not plowed in the
fall, many weed seeds were not de-
stroyed, and I had very hard time
keeping the weeds down. The plants
did not grow very large, and as it con-
tinued very dry, I decided it not best
to stake the plants. The plants did
not make very great growth and very
few needed pruning. l hoed them I'M
til the tomatoes began to ripen and
the plants were too large.
81 picked my first ripe tomatoes on
the 9th of July. From then on the
picking every two or three days grew
larger. At first I received ten cents a
pound, but soon the price began to
| fall so that after the first of Septem-
| Der received only two cents pound.
AS my father runs dairy, he took the
tomatoes with him and sold them very
easily to the hotels, restaurants. and
i~~xsl IL x11f4r
almost all of them until the green ones
were gathered. AS long as we could
get dollar a bushel for the tomatoes
fresh and as we were SO very busy
with the work of dairy, thought it
best not to can them.
After school began was kept very
busy in picking the tomatoes. For
several weeks it took me three even
ings of the week to get over the en-
tire patch and often gathered over ten
bushels. During the second and third
weeks Of September we had SO much
rainy weather that could not gather
the tomatoes, and after the rains they
began to ripen so rapidly that many
of them split On the 18th and 18th
of October l had to gather the green
tomatoes. I gathered 1883 pounds.
There was no sale for these. We used
all we could and I gave some to the
neighbors, and still great many went
to waste, as they were wet when they
were gathered, and as it turned warm
/ again. they rotted very fast. AS we
had great deal of company this sum-
mer, and because our other garden
vegetables were not as good as usual,
we used more tomatoes fresh.
II made collection of canned fruits,
vegetables, and meats, which consisted
of the following: tomatoes. beets.
white wax beans, green podded beans,
celery, carrots, picked onions, beet
greens, pumpkin shelled beans, pears.
apples, plums, peaches, cherries, straw.
berries. raspberries. white and purple
grapes, sausage, chicken, corn, water.
melon pickles, and gooseberries. / ex'