Booklet by Emma Duke, tomato club

Booklet By Emma W. Duke

[image of two tomatoes]

Tomato Club Girls' Thoughts

There are several reasons why I joined the Tomato Club, but the principal reason is for the educational value.

I like the work and expect to belong to it for several years yet.

My garden is at the foot of a south hill, a sandy loam soil. It is 33 feet by 132 feet, which is one tenth acre.

The ground was seeded to clover last fall, and in the spring that was cut and the land thoroughly broken and dragged. The land should be broken deep so as to make the crop withstand dry weather if any should come. We made the land fine and mellow before transplanting our plant to our plots.

I had the fertilizer put in drill

about five hundred lbs. to the acre. I think, 16 per cent phosphates.

We grew our plants in hot beds which we made in march.

We cultivated our plots shallow and flat. I did not stake my tomatoes this year, but expect to stake them next year for it makes the fruit grow larger and smoother.

Cut worms gave me some trouble in the early spring, but they were conquered by the use of parish green. This I put in water and poured around roots of plants.

I gathered my tomatoes in a little wagon so that I could haul them to the house.

After getting the skin off I packed them in cans and placed tops on wiped them dry, put the fluid on and

sealed, then placed in Canner and exhausted, tapped them and cooked the required number of minutes. I did not preserve any this year but will next. The label is to show the kind of fruit in cans and the emblem "To Make the Best Bette [Better]

We hav'ent had any meetings. I have learned several things about the use of vegetables one is that they are good to eat I like the raw one better for serving. I made 724 lbs. Used 11 lbs. at home. Did'ent [Didn't] sell any fresh ones. Canned 152 quarts. Cost of work $3.90 profit on tenth acre $14.22

The Club Work has helped me in many ways it has helped me learn to grow tomatoes it has helped me sell my tomatoes etc.