St. Landry clarion. (Opelousas, La.) 1890-1921, 1918-06-01

industry in this county the factories
paid sixteen and two-thirds cents per
bushel for tomatoes and the growers
furnished thir own crates to deliver
them in. For several years, in fact
since 1909 or 1910, the price of to-
matoes has been thirty cents per
bushel or ten dollars per ton, and
crates furnished in which to deliver.
Now, under war conditions, tanners
are offering forty-tWo cents per bush
ell or fourteen dollars per ton. To
matoes at this price are a profitable
crop. Appleby Brothers Of Fayette-
vile, who are growers of tomatoes
as well as commercial Gamers, have
found the growing end of the bust
ness very profitable. we have
grown tomatoes for the past nine
years and will say that W. have found
the farming end of the business the
most profitable. During the time we
have been growing tomatoes we have
had only one failure, that was in
1915, and was caused by excessive
rains. We have had better crops
some years than others; yields have
run from three to fifteen tons per
acre. Last season the average yield
was close to one hundred and fifty
bushels per acre. This past season
we offered four prizes for the great
est quantity of tomatoes grown per
acre, The four men who got the
prizes made an average of ITS bush
els per acre. The best yield OF the
four was 305 bushels. This was a
fairly good year for tomatoes, but not
ideal by any The early sum
mer was too dry, following this was
a short period Of excessive rains,
which caused a great deal OF rot.
Then on October s we had a freeze
that caught a lot of tomatoes in the
! field that would have ripened If they
had had a little more time. This
past season we cultivated a block of
thirty-five acres in tomatoes three
miles from our plant at Pennington.
The particular locality of this place
suffered for want of moisture. All
the showers in early summer seemed
to miss it. There was a period of
six weeks that this place had no
! rains at all. This was in June and
July. AS a result the tomato crop
was not what we expected or what
we should have had, but after all ex-
penses for c~ultiyating and harvest
ing, we had one thousand dollars to
the good. The ground was left in
ezcelleTE condition and was sownl
in wheat, as we expect to get part of
our pay for growing tomatoes next
wheat harvest"
/ was recently In this thirty-ffve
acre field which cleared last year one
thousand dollars from the tomato crop
it produced and | must say that it
is now growing a crop OF wheat
which from present indications will
produce a heavy yield. It is a comon
practice in the county to follow to-
matoes with wheat on all soils that
will produce a fair yield of wheat.
Our yield of wheat for the county
in 1917 was % bushels per acre.
With the start in the canning
industry has in this county at this
time, it can be made one of our lead
ing industries. Up to this time a
great part of the equipment provided
for use in canning is more or less
temporary and inconvenient. This
refers to buildings and equipment. In
the last few years there has been
a fairly good tomato canning plants
erected in the county. There is
likely to be greater improvement.
AS the business grows and the
the farmers get more accustomed to
growing the crop the facilities for
handling same will no doubt be pro-
vided. AS an evidence of that fact,
this is the first season that the waste
from the tomato factories has been
utilized. There was shipped from the
county during last season about fiji
ty cars of tomato pulp, made from
skins and cores, and only five of the
factories made pulp. Had the others
been prepared to handle their waste
In the same way, fully fifty more
cars of pulp would have been mar
keted.
This solves almost completely the
problem Of saving the waste in the
canning factory. All the surplus
juice from the tomatoes, together
with the waste parts of the pulp and
skins are collected and pressed under
high pressure, The juice which is
secured is pumped into wooden
tanks where it is boiled until it be-
comes slightly thickened. It is then
drawn off into cans, sealed by hand
and shipped to the catchup factor
les. The eanneries get only five
cents a gallon for this stock, but
this from last seasons experience it
is paying wonderfully. It must be
remembered that it is a material
that has heretofore been considered
as worthless and of NJ value.