Annual, 1913, tomato club booklet

[image of red tomato with a green vine with two smaller green tomatoes behind]

ANNUAL 1913

History and Report of Margaret Brown R. Y [?]. D. 7 Charlotte N. C Mecklenburg Co

How I Grew My Tomatoes.

The purpose of the girls canning club is to give the farm girls an opportunity to make some money, to use as they need it, and make it so they do not have to ask their parents for money every time they want it.

They learn how to use a canner, how to make different kinds of things out of tomatoes, and how to prepare different kinds of fruits and vegetables.

I enrolled as a member just because I thought it would do me good in some way.

Tomato. [underlined]

Mother told me something that I never had heard about tomatoes when I ask her what the question, "Life history of tomatoes meant." Mother said, I can remember that when I was a child the tomatoes were raised mostly as a curosity [curiosity], people were almost afraid to eat them. Tomatoes are now one of the principal vegetables that a farmer raises for market, or home use.

My plot is sandy loam sub-. soil.

A garden seed bed made during the winter here in Mecklenburg county should be made on the south side of a hill, or in a warm place

where the sun can strike it easily. It should be dug up well first. Then manure mixed with this dirt so as to make a good warm place to plant the seed. We put glass over our bed to keep the cold from chilling the plants. This should be done about the middle of February.

We used nitrate of soda under our tomato plants. We used this kind of fertilizer to keep moisture in the ground, and help to make the plants grow.

We pulled the largest plants first. This gives the smaller ones a chance to grow. We carried our plants to the garden in a guano sack folded. We could pour water on the sack and put the upper fold over them, this was to prevent them from wilting. We dug small holes and put out the plants. After putting in the plants, we poured water on the roots the plants, and set them out.

I cultivated my tomatoes with a hoe, and father plowed them with a cultivator and plow.

I did not stake, or prune my tomato plants.

I had a little patch of blight in my plat. I pulled up the vines and burnt them. Father put lime on our plat so as to prevent diseases.

I did not have any trouble with insects.

I managed my fresh vegetables right

well. They ripened fast and nicely. We picked our tomatoes when we had time, and when they were ready to pick. We used large soap boxes for packing our tomatoes in when sending them to Charlotte, to our regular market.

*When we canned We used an El Flo no. 30 canner. No. 3 cans having lids with solder on them. We used a good cappaing steel and tipping copper. The cans are very easy to solder up when the irons are hot.

The tomato cans are easy to label.

Working with the tomato patch teaches both of us to work problems, as we have a great many problems to solve in this work. It is a daily task to get all our accounts straight, especially during marketing time.

Tomatoes can be used in many different ways. You can make tomato pies, pickles, with green tomatoes and ripe ones too. You can make preserves, chili sauce, catsup, sour pickles, or you can put them up as they are, or with corn or okra.

We yielded on our crop of tomatoes as follows: twenty one quarts of catsup, eighteen quarts of pickles, three hundred and six cans of tomatoes. And sold fresh, one hundred and eighty three dollars, and twenty nine cents worth of tomatoes.