1914 tomato club booklet

1914

[image of three red tomatoes with green leaves]

The reason why I joined the tomato club is because that I thought it would be great help in learning me about the growing of tomatoes and also the canning of them. I think all the farm girls ought to join the club which will be much help to them in school also at home.

My plat is 252 feet long 16 1/2 feet wide the number of square feet in plat is 4.158. It is located on a hill in the newground and has a black loamy soil with red clay subsoil. Why I selected that place is because the land looked rich as if it would grow good tomatoes.

The ground was broken about twelve inches deep then in a few months the land was rebroke and pulverized good with harrow. The reason for breaking the land so deep is that we thought the plants would draw more moisture and do better then if it would be

broken shallow.

I used 67 lbs. of acid phosphate nurate potash fertilize on my plat April, 29, 1914.

My tomato plants were grown in cold beds, my seed were sown in the garden in a bed of very rich dirt and the bed was watered every day untill the transplanting of the plants. I covered them at night to protect them from frost and at sun rise they were uncovered so that the sun could shine on them, when the plants were about six inches high with the help of my father, mother, sister and brother we transplanted them in my plat in rows four feet apart.

My tomatoes plants were cultivated with the plow and hoe. I did not either prune or stake my plants.

I was not bothered with insects

or diseases of any kind, I prevented them by spraying.

[image of a girl in a hat and dress standing next to plants]

But the twenty-fifth of June we had a hard hail storm after the storm, I went to look at my tomato stalks. The above picture shows how I was standing looking at the stalks all beaten to piece and the little tomatoes were beaten in to holes. I stook there looking so disgusted, studying what to do. I came back to the house and soon made up my mind to go to work and do my very best and see what I could do with them.

I gathered my tomatoes in bushel boxes and half-bushel buckets.

We did our canning out in the

yard in the shade of a big oak tree. The first thing I did was to grade my tomatoes, wash them and put them into the baskets to be scalded after scalding them they were took and put into cold water after they were took out of the water they were pealed put into the cans the cans were then sealed and put into the boiling water to be exhausted after they had exhausted long enough they were taken out and pin holes sealed then again placed into the canner to be cooked, after cooked they were taken out and put in cold water.

The motto of the girl's club lable is to make the best better the meaning of the emblem which is 4 H. Brand is head heart, health and hands.

All the members of the Pleasant Grove tomato club would meet at the school house, we would go to work and work untill noon then serve a large dinner