The Wilmington morning star., 1947-07-27

L 1SN1llS lOlllolOSS WILL StoAl IlSAl
week. The New jersey crop is two
weeks later. This applies both to
the few hundred acres being
grown from Brunswick county
plants and the many thousands #
acres from plants that were pro-
duced in Georgia. In additi ~ to
limiting the supply of plants, The
cold weather in the spring set the
crop back two weeks.
Most of the Brunswick county
grown plants were taken by a can
ming company / n Pennsylvania
ard distributed among its far
mers. The Brunswick plants in
Pennsylvania r also said to be.
Going well, but Sheppard had no
direct report On them.
About his own 40 acre field at
Shiloh, Sheppard says that t!.s
growth is uniform over the whole
field. Standing to one side the field
It has the appearance of being a
well kept lawn, the plants just be-
ginning to load with tomatoes.
The Shiloh man will be back at
southport in September to begin
blowing his land and planting a
cover crop, preparatory to getting
his land in shape and drilling in
his tomato seed in the spring. He
has leased one tract of 40 acres
three miles from Southport on the
river road. This cen be condition
ec for the tomato seed with little
effort, he predicts.
Another tract, e,sht miles out on
the river road, will require much
labor. This tract, Or which a long
term lease has been secured. is
composed of 95 acres. 1t has 10
he cleared Of sturnps and small
tlees left from saw milling opera
lions. This work will commence
in September and as much of the
tract as possible will be processed
for planting tomato seed in the
spring.
While he has no way of knowing
definitely just how many acres he
will sow in tomato seed in South
port this spring, Sheppard said he
will plant three times as much as
he planted last spring. The New
Jersey man grows plants for use
on his own tomato farms at Shl-
lob and supplies a big cannery in
Pennsylvania for distribution
among its growers.
Thousands of acres in southern
Georgia are planted for plants
each spring. One farmer sows six
hundred acres under contract. One
cannery in the eastern states has
10 have enough plants each year
Tor 40, 1000 acres. It requires 81
hours to truck the plants from
Georgia to New Jersey.
Sheppard, who has been grow
ing plants in Georgia for many
years, decided they could be pro-
duced as early here; that he could
pull the plants from the beds here
one day and set them out IN the
New Jersey fields the next.
He has proven both points. His
plants did as well here as those
grown in Georgia. His trucks left
here with their loads in the after
noon and were at Shiloh and
points in Pennsylvania Is hours
later.
They arrived, f-esher and in
generally better condition than the
plants from Georgia, requiring
two whole nights and a day and
a half for transit.
County Agent J. E. Dodson and
others who have been keeping
closely in touch with the tomato
plant growing Developments in
Brunswick believe that next
spring may see several hundred
acres planted in the spring. Al
least a dozen men, representative
Ct canning companies Or produc-
ers of tomato plants under con
tract have been looking for land
in Brunswick since spring. Some
T. these parties are known TO have
obtained land. Others have been at
tcacted towards land for trucking
crops. A Long island, N. Y. man
will plant so acres in cabbage and
more in other truck crops this
winter and spring.
Sheppard, the originator of the
idea of growing tomato plants in
Brunswick, says that he does not
expect to have a monopoly of TIE
business in this section very lorg.
He said while shipping his toma-
to plants. that re only hoped lie
would have a year or two before
other growers begin canning down