Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1922-04-26
The Tomato.

II sfs-ef ~, a AS97A una s0s
Separated by less than a city
1block on Main Street of a Southern
town, there are two Stores with
hundreds of tomato plants growing
lin boxes placed in show windows. One
Of these stores is of the hardware
kind and the other is the headquar-
tiers of the county paper, These
plants are sold in greater numbers
for planting in the, country than for
planting in the town. In the neigh
borhood of this town, of Al farms
visited in March only two had cold
frames and one hotbed. It is really
difficult to understand why so few
farmers have hotbeds or cold frames.
While this is not the time of the year
for making either, 7 feel sure that
thousands of Progressive Farmer.
readers are now wishing they could
have had large tomato plants ready
for transplanting when the tempera-
ture permitted them to be set in the
open. How nice it would be to have,
ripe tomatoes th9ee weeks earlier.
than we, will have them! Make note
of this now and have hotbeds and
coldframes next fall for growing let
tuee for Christmas, to be followed
by tomato, pepper and eggplant for
early spring.
Tomato plants, as a rule, are
grown TOO slender or spindling. This
is the result of their being too crowd
ed when they are in the seed rows.
One stout, stocky; dark green toma>
to plant is worth two of the weak lit.
tie saplings that are too commonly
grown. Il
Setting Tomato Plants Do not
follow the overworked and fallacious
rule of setting only as deep as they
stood in the seed bed. This is not
deep enough. A good tomato plant is
about eight inches from the root to.
top and larger thansa lead pencil. Set
the plant deep enough to have. half
the stem below the surface of the
ground. Plants set in this manner
will have roots deep enough to resist
drouth. Besides, roots will come
along the part of the stem that is
underground.
Pruning:-If the plants are to be
pruned to one or two stems and tied!
to stakes, set them 1S to "a inches
apart in 3zfoot rows! If the intention
lis neither to prune nor stake them,
then make the rows 4 feet apart and
set the plants 8 feet in the row. Pref
erence should be given to pruning
and stalking, especially in the home
garden, since, the plants can be CIV
enbetter cultivation and more eff
fective spraying, the fruit will ripen
earlier, and be larger, better and
more uniform in size and shape. Set
the stakes soon after the plants are
transplanted. To tie up, loop the
string around the stake, twist, and
then tie under the stem of leaf. Go
over the Patch sSsstseh once week and re-.
move all branches that start in the
axis of leaves.
Cultivaticn.-Frequent and thor
ough cultivation not only destroys
weeds but increases and regulates
the supply Of soil moisture and this
inturn helps prevent the destructive
blossom-end rot:
Fighting Diseases.-Tomato worms
are among the worst enemies of this
crop and the plants should be busted
with powdered calcium arsenate
when the fruits are small. Lead ar
senate may be substituted if desired.
In either case, mix the poison with an
aie-slaked lime, Dust the whole plant,
since the young worms begin feeding
upon the leaves and later go(to the
fruits
If it is more desirable or conve-
nient to spray instead of dusting
them, dissolve one pound of calcium
or lead arsenate powder (or two
pounds of pastel in small quantity
of water and then dilute to SO gal
Ions by adding enough water; or If
blight appears dilute to 40 gallons
and add pounds of copper sulphate
dissolved in gallons of water and
A pounds of stone lime dissolved in
IS gallons of water. Pour the copper