stion as to the extent they are now grown in America is the fact
that a single seed grower saved in 1903 over 20,000 pounds of tomato
seed--an amount sufficient to furnish plants for from 80,000 to 320,000
acres, according to the care used in raising them, the larger quantity
not requiring more care than the best growers commonly use. A careful
estimate made by the _American Grocer_ shows that in 1903 the packing of
tomatoes by canners in the United States amounted to 246,775,426
three-pound cans. In addition to the canned tomato, between 200,000 and
250,000 barrels of catsup stock is put up annually, requiring the
product of at least 20,000 acres.

It is probable that the area required to produce the fruit that is used
fresh at least equals that devoted to the production for preserving,
which give us from 400,000 to 500,000 acres devoted to this crop each
year in America alone. The fruit is perhaps in more general use in
America than elsewhere, but its cultivation and use have increased
rapidly in other countries, particularly with the English speaking
races. Large quantities are grown in Australia, and immense and
constantly increasing quantities are grown under glass in England and
adjacent islands, while _The Gardeners' Chronicle_ states that in 1903
between 600,000 and 800,000 pounds of fresh fruit were imported into
England from other countries.

CHAPTER III

General Characteristics of the Plant

=In the native home= of the tomato, in South America, the conditions of
the soil, both as regards composition and mechanical condition, of the
moisture both in soil and air, and those of temperature and sunlight,
are throughout the growing season not only very favorable for rapid
growth, but are uniformly and constantly so. Under such conditions there
has been developed a plant which, while vigorous, tenacious of life,
capable of rapid growth and enormously productive, is not at all hardy
in the sense of ability to endure untoward conditions either in the
character of soil, of water supply, or of temperature. A check in the
development because of any unfavorable condition is never fully
recovered from, but will inevitably affect the total quantity and
quality of the fruit produced, even if subsequent favorable conditions
result in the rapid and vigorous growth of the plant.

I know of an instance where two adjoining fields belonging to A and B
were set with tomatoes, using plants started in the same hotbed fr