Part 7

Earliana.--The earliness of this old and popular variety outweighs its demerits where this character is required. The past ten years have seen material improvement.

Earliana is early, of small vine, with small leaves and leaflets. Clusters are compoundly branched, with many fruits. The fruits are of medium size, deep oblate, cross section often elliptical rather than circular. There are many rough irregular fruits, varying in this respect with breeding and conditions of growth. Color is red, not too deep and tending to be poorly developed at the stem end. Interior consists of many small cells with thin walls.

Bison.--represents a group of varieties bred for rigorous climates of our most northerly states. A. F. Yeager formerly of North Dakota, later of Michigan, now of New Hampshire has led in this development.

Victor.--is a new variety bred originally by Yeager but introduced by K. C. Barrons of Michigan. It affords smoother, deeper and better colored fruits about as early as Earliana. It is determinate in habit and shy in foliage, increasing danger of sunscald. Rich soil and ample moisture are needed for its best development. Bounty and Home Garden are similar.

Penn State.--Penn State, developed by C. E. Myers of Pennsylvania, is not as early as Earliana. It is similar in fruit characters though distinctly better in color and shape. It is marked by short branches (determinate habit) and is designed to give an early crop to be followed by prompt abandonment of the planting. It is not to be confused with Penn State Earliana.

Bonny Group.--This group embraces our leading second early varieties widely used for home garden, greenhouse, market and cannery in the north. It includes Bonny Best, John Baer and Chalk Jewel with many additional names and with much confusion of characters among them.

Bonny Best is second early and of medium plant growth. Fruits are deep oblate to flattened globe, even and smooth, of good red color, with few large, thick-walled cells.

Varieties and strains of this group vary in growth and yield, in size, shape and earliness of fruit and in suitability for greenhouse, market, cannery and juice. Stokesdale and Scarlet Dawn are meritorious newer names in the group.

Marglobe.--This variety was developed by the late Dr. F. J. Pritchard from a cross between Marvel, a French variety lending resistance to fusarium and Globe, an old variety of fine size and shape. It is widely used, north and south, for market--green or ripe, for cannery and to some extent, for forcing.

Marglobe is a midseason variety, with large vine and foliage, resistant to fusarium and nailhead spot. Fruits are nearly globular, shapely and smooth, medium to large, scarlet red, with medium number of thick walled cells. Marglobe is rather subject to deep radial cracks.

Pritchard is of the general type of Marglobe but is earlier, with short branching habit and resistance to nailhead rust and to fusarium, and, perhaps, is less subject to cracking.

Greater Baltimore is used chiefly for canning in long-season districts. It is late, with large vine, large flat fruits of excellent scarlet red, outside and in, with many thick walled cells. Indiana Baltimore is a variant widely grown in the mid-west for cannery.

Rutgers was developed by L. G. Schermerhorn at the New Jersey Experiment Station for fine juice and canning characters--color, flavor and substance. Growth is vigorous and yields are heavy; fruits are large, flattened and well colored.

Gulf State Market is a second early shipping tomato, generally harvested green. It is flattened in shape, of well developed pink color and good interior.

Comet Group.--These trace mostly to English or other European origin and are increasingly used for greenhouse and for staking out-of-doors. Comet is small, flattened, slightly corrugated about the stem, of fine even red color, very firm and solid, with few very thick walled cells. Other names are Sunrise, and Lord Roberts. Several American forcing strains have been developed with at least one parent of this group--Ideal, Grand Rapids Forcing, Field Station Comet, Trellis, Michigan State Forcing, Lloyd Forcing, Blair Forcing and others.

King Humbert and San Marzano represent the small Italian oblong tomatoes that are prized for their thick walls, fine color and suitability for puree, paste and soup.

Ponderosa is popular for home garden, a "beef-steak" tomato of very large size, irregular shape, flat, pink, with many small cells and of very mild sub-acid flavor. It is best grown to single stem. Oxheart is large, heart shaped, pink and very meaty. Others of this general type may be had in red, yellow and orange flesh. In general, the whole group lacks in prolificacy.

Oddities.--Tomato fanciers often plant seed of Red and Yellow Pear, Cherry, Currant, Peach with its fuzzy skin, Plum and others. They are prized for preserves and for decoration. Ground Cherry or Husk Tomato is not a true tomato but belongs to a different genus (Physalis). It makes excellent preserves. Well do I remember sneaking off from the other kids for solitary plunder of the little row that was usually in Grandma's garden.

Comprehensive descriptions of leading varieties of tomatoes have been published by the United States Department of Agriculture in Miscellaneous Publication 160, the result of statistical and verbal notations over several years at five widely scattered stations of the country.

STRONG PLANTS FOR EARLY MATURITY AND HEAVY CROP

One of the ways to make money from tomatoes is to mature them early, selling while the price is still high. There is a big difference between $.10 a pound and $.10 a basket. Shipped and ripened green wrap tomatoes cannot be very cheap on northern markets even though Southern growers may realize little for them.

Another way to profit is to grow good plants to sell. Judging by the spindling, crowded, soft or over-hardened plants so common in stores, there should be great opportunity here and, as a matter of fact, many market gardeners do well in this business realizing welcome returns when other income is negligible.

To market ten-cent-a-pound tomatoes from out-doors requires good plants--plants that have passed through their youth nearly or fully up to blossoming time with benefit of heat and shelter and that are ready to keep up vigorous growth in face of the demands of fruiting. A few scattering fruits matured early do not suffice.

Even for cannery, good plants are required. In most regions, plants are not as good as they should be. All too often, outdoor seed bed plants are set where cold frame or at least cloth cover should be employed. Further north, cold frame plants or second run or other inferior plants are used instead of the best. That is why many canning companies have greenhouses and grow plants for their farmers.

And in the home garden, the quality of vine ripened fruit along with the satisfaction of early maturity are goals worth striving for.

Plant growing is a game of skill. It calls for keen observation, constant and faithful attention to small details, and a high order of workmanship in the various operations. Furthermore, when a considerable number of plants are to be grown, it calls for good organization and rapid work if costs are not to be unduly increased. A transplanter who makes three motions where two will suffice is likely to turn profit into loss, for the loss of a second when repeated thousands of times makes many hours.

The grower who is producing tomatoes for first-early maturity wants a plant that will withstand the rigors of transplanting and of inclement weather which may follow, that will start immediately into growth, and that will mature fruit in good quantity at the earliest possible date. This usually means a plant about ten inches tall, with heavy, firm, dark-colored stem (though not over-hardened), a heavy body of dark, healthy foliage, and a cluster of blossoms, with possibly a fruit or two already set. If the buds in the axils of the leaves have begun growth, no harm will be done.

Many growers are doubtful whether it is well to have fruit set on plants when they are transplanted in the field, as they claim that the little tomatoes are often lost and in any case the progress of the plant is retarded. Such plants must be handled with great skill. If they are severely checked when taken to the field, other and less advanced plants may do as well. There is danger in having plants too far advanced, and an unexpected delay in field setting may result in spindling and over-hardening that may prove disastrous. A vigorous and properly hardened plant that is younger will do better under such circumstances. Some growers protect themselves by having plants of more than one sort.