Girls club, tomato club booklet by Hattie S. Harrell

[image of tomato]

Club No. 1 Member's No. 3

Hattie S. Harrell

Sunbury Gates Co. N.C.

One of the older

Examined

History of Tomatoes.

I had heard of the tomato club, but had thought about it very little until Mrs. McKimmon came down here about the middle of December. It was then that I decided to join.

My seed were planted the first of April. It was such cool weather that the bugs got on them and destroyed right many.

My plot was flushed the first of April, then it was harrowed. The rows were then laid off, the manure put down and raked in.

There were four loads of compost, 1/2 bag of phosphate, 1/2 bag of cotton seed meal and 1 pk of potash put on my plot.

On the 7th of May I transplanted my plants

from the garden to my plot. That night it rained and settled the earth around them so they went right to growing.

On the 29th of May I went down to my plot to work the plants, and it was on that morning that I found the first bloom.

My plants grew beautifully until about the middle of June. The dry weather then set in and we did not have enough rain to wet the ground from that time until the canning season was over.

Our Collaborator did not kow how to prune plants until she went to the meeting in Raleigh in June. When she came back my plants were so large that I could do very

little pruning, however I pruned about half of them.

I decided that I would stake part of them and leave the others unstaked, so on the 2nd of July I staked about half of them, and I don't think I exaggerate when I say those that were staked bore twice as many as those that were not.

A few of my plants died with wilt, and the whole of the first crop had the bud rot. I used land plaster on them, but they rotted some until the last ones were gone-

There was a large green worm that bothered the plants right much. They would eat the leaves and sometimes eat a whole tomato.