Smyrna Times

URGE EARLY TOMATO PATCH
Russel E. Wilson Tells Farmers Early Planting Improves The Yield and Quality
MAKES COMPARISON
Although the economic importance of earliness in setting tomato plants in the field for the production of higher yields per acre and tomatoes of better quality for canning purposes has been demonstrated in Kent county, the attention of all tomato growers is again being called this spring to the value of this practice in assisting them to realize more profitable returns from their crop.

That the time of setting plants greatly influences the yield has been shown in demonstrations which have been conducted in Kent county for the past several years under the direction of County Agent Russell E. Wilson, who has received the cooperation of interested growers and canners in conducting this tomato improvement program.

Those plants which were set during the last two weeks in May produced on the average 7.8 tons of tomatoes per acre, as compared to a yield of 5.5 tons per acre from those plants which were set in June, resulting in a difference of 2.3 tons per acre in favor of the early plants. The early set plants are able to make considerably more growth before foliage diseases check their development, and they also have the opportunity to set a larger percentage of tomatoes before the arrival of high temperatures in mid-summer.

Until a few years ago the canning of tomatoes on a large commercial scale was confined chiefly to the states along the Atlantic seaboard, but today this industry has spread to the middle west and into the far western states as a result of the general tendency in all agricultural sections for farmers to diversify their crop production as widely as possible in an effort to withstand this period of depression by growing a few more cash crops.

In order to meet this increasing competition in the growing and canning of tomatoes, therefore, it has become necessary for both growers and canners to make use of every available method by which the quality of the product will be improved in this section of the United States.

Although the growing of early tomatoes is one step toward the production of more and better tomatoes per acre, the acreage should not be expanded if this crop is to be placed and maintained on a more profitable basis for both the farmers and canners.

This program of producing higher quality crops on a reduced acreage is in accord with the farm relief measures which are being advocated by our Federal government, but the success of this program will depend largely upon the support which farmers will give it throughout the country.

If tomatoes are grown with the idea of producing more and higher quality tomatoes from fewer acres, they offer the best cash crop for Kent county farmers under the present agricultural conditions with the accompanying low prices for farm crops in general, but with low yields of a poor quality produce farmers can never hope to secure any profits from this crop.

During the past several years farmers in this section have been either growing their early plants in cloth-covered cold-frames, or purchasing the southern-grown plants, in order to have them ready to set in the field during the latter part of May.