. Bulletin of the Department of Agriculture. Agriculture; Agriculture. 4 BULLETIN 859, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. rows are 6 feet apart. The procedure is the same. The usual practice is to fertilize at the rate of 1 to 1J tons per acre, the last application being made several weeks before picking. The interval between applications varies with weather conditions and the growth of the plants. The custom is to locate the position of the rootlets along the side of the furrow made at the preceding application and to keep a quantity of fertilizer just ahead of these rootlets, so that a co
. Bulletin of the Department of Agriculture. Agriculture; Agriculture. 4 BULLETIN 859, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. rows are 6 feet apart. The procedure is the same. The usual practice is to fertilize at the rate of 1 to 1J tons per acre, the last application being made several weeks before picking. The interval between applications varies with weather conditions and the growth of the plants. The custom is to locate the position of the rootlets along the side of the furrow made at the preceding application and to keep a quantity of fertilizer just ahead of these rootlets, so that a constant supply is available for the plant. The time of picking the tomatoes of course depends upon the age and condition of the fruit. Many growers believe that it is an easy matter to determine the maturity by the character of the darkened area around the stem end. Toward the last stages of maturation the chlorophyll gradually disappears, especially around the stem end,. Fig. 1.—A tomato field in Florida. where a whitened area is left. Fields are gone over once a week by the pickers, who collect the fruit in baskets or tin buckets. (Fig. 1.) In general the pickers (Nassau negroes) do not pay much attention to the color of the tomatoes, but gather those that appear large enough to ship. The tomatoes are dumped into field boxes at the ends of the rows and carried by wagon to the ripening house or pack- ing house. The fruit is generally handled carefully, but often it is dropped from the gathering bucket to the field crate without the picker even bending over. PACKING AND SHIPPING OPERATIONS. Until recently the fruit was sorted, packed, and shipped imme- diately upon its arrival at the packing house, but the loss through disease and bruising was so great that it became necessary to adopt. Please note that these images are extracted from scanned page images that may have been digitally enhanced for readability - coloration and appearance of these illustrations may not perfectly r
Size: 2068px × 1208px
Photo credit: © Book Worm / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookauth, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjectagriculture
