e in more conspicuous characteristics, will show varietal
differences of such importance as to affect more or less materially the
value of the plant for the conditions and the purposes for which it is
grown. In a book like this it is useless to attempt to give long
varietal descriptions even of the sorts commonly listed by seedsmen,
since such descriptions would be more a statement of what the writer
thought seed of that variety should be rather than of what one would be
likely to receive under that name.

CHAPTER XVII

Production for Canning

=Growing for canning= has many advantages over growing for market. Some
of these are that it is not necessary to start the plants so early, that
they can be grown at less cost, and set in the field when smaller and
with less check, and on this latter account are apt to give a large
yield. It is not necessary to gather the fruit so often, nor to handle
it so carefully, while practically all of it is saleable. For these
reasons the cost of production is lower and it is less variable than
with crops grown for market. Still farmers and writers do not agree at
all as to the actual cost. It is claimed by some that where the factory
is within easy reach of the field the cost of growing, gathering and
delivering a full yield of tomatoes need not exceed $12 to $18 an acre,
while others declare they cannot be grown for less than $40. Nearly
one-third of this cost is for picking and delivering, and varies more
with the facilities for doing this easily and promptly and with the
yield than with crops grown for market. A large proportion of the crops
grown for canning are poorly cultivated and unwisely handled, so that
the average yield throughout the entire country is very low, hardly
exceeding 100 bushels an acre. But where weather and other conditions
are favorable, and with judicious cultivation, a yield of 300 to 800
bushels an acre can be expected. I have known of many larger ones.

A large proportion of the tomatoes grown for canning are planted under
contract, by which the farmer agrees to deliver the entire yield of
fruit fit for canning, which may be produced on a given area, at the
contract price per bushel or ton. The canner is to judge what fruit is
fit for canning and this often results in great dissatisfaction. To the
grower it seems in many cases as though the quantity of acceptable fruit
paid for was determined quite as much by the abundance or scarcity of
the gener