For early-ripening fruit.—Sometimes the profit and satisfaction from a tomato crop depend more largely upon the earliness of ripening than upon the amount of yield or cost of growing. In such cases a warm, sandy loam, or even a distinctly sandy soil, is to be preferred, as this is apt to be warmer and the fruit will be matured much earlier on it than on a heavier soil. It is essential, however, that it be well drained and warm. Often lands classed as sandy are really colder than some of those classed as clay, and such soils should be carefully avoided if early maturity is important.
For the home garden.—Here we seldom have a choice, but no one need despair and abandon effort, no matter what the soil may be, for it is quite possible to raise an abundant home supply on any soil and that, too, without inordinate cost and labor. Some of the most prolific plants and the finest fruits I have ever seen were grown in a village lot which five years before had been filled in to a depth of 3 to 10 feet with clay, coal ashes and refuse from a brick and coal yard. In another instance magnificent fruit was grown in a garden where the soil was originally made up chiefly of sawdust mixed with sand, drawn on a foundation of sawmill edgings so as to raise it above the water of a swamp. Where one has to contend with such conditions he should make an effort to create a friable soil with a supply of humus by adding the material needed. A very few loads, sometimes even a single load, of clay or sand will greatly change the character of the soil of a sufficient area to grow the one or two dozen plants necessary for a family supply. In the two cases mentioned, the owner of the first named garden used both sand and sawdust to lighten his soil, while the second drew a great many loads of clay on his.
Growing under glass.—I would make up a soil composed of about three parts rotted sod, two or three parts of well-rotted stable manure (and it is very important that it be well decomposed) and one part either of coarse, sharp sand, sandy loam or clay loam, according as the sod soil is light or heavy, the aim being to form a rich, light, open soil rather than one which is as heavy and compact as desirable for some plants. If sod soil is not available, of course, garden loam can be substituted, but it is very important that the soil be thoroughly mixed, and desirable that it be prepared sometime before it is to be used. Some growers use the same soil for several crops, simply adding some fresh manure; but, if so used, it is important that it be stirred and thoroughly re-mixed and sterilized.
CHAPTER VI
Exposure and Location
In sections where there is danger of the plants being killed by early fall frosts before they have ripened their entire crop, exposure of the field is sometimes of importance in determining the marketable yield.
A gentle inclination to the south, with a protection of higher land or timber on the sides from which frost or high winds are most likely to come, is the best. A steep descent to the south, shut in by high land to the east and west, so as to form a hot pocket, is not favorable for a maximum crop although it may give a smaller yield of early ripening fruit; nor is a small field entirely surrounded by forest desirable.
I once knew of a field, of about two acres, sloping to the south and entirely surrounded by heavy timber, on which two or three tomato crops were failures when other fields on the same farm gave large yields, but after the timber on the south and east had been cut away this field generally gave the largest yield in the neighborhood.