erior views of
greenhouses at the New York station at Geneva, the Ohio station at
Wooster, and the New Hampshire station at Durham. Note the strong,
vigorous plants in Fig. 26; the method of utilizing tile for watering in
Fig. 27; and the ground-floor bedding in Fig. 28.

CHAPTER XIV

Ripening, Gathering, Handling and Marketing the Fruit

Tomatoes ripen and color from within outward and they will acquire full
and often superior color, particularly about the stems, if, as soon as
they have acquired full size and the ripening process has fairly
commenced, they are picked and spread out in the sunshine. The point of
ripeness when they can be safely picked is indicated by the surface
color changing from a dark green to one of distinctly lighter shade with
a very light tinge of pink. Fruit picked in this stage of maturity may
be wrapped in paper and shipped 1,000 or 2,000 miles and when unwrapped
after two or ten days' journey will be found to have acquired a
beautiful color, often even more brilliant than that of a companion
fruit left on the vine. Enclosing the fruit while on the vine and about
half grown in paper bags has been recommended, and it often results in
deeper and more even coloring and prevents injury from cracking, but the
fruit so ripened, while more beautiful, is not so well flavored as that
ripened in the sun. But Americans are said to taste with their eyes, so
that in this country, fruit of this beautiful color will often out-sell
that which is of better flavor though of duller color.

The tomato never acquires its full and most perfect flavor except when
ripened on the vine and in full sunlight. Vine and sun-ripened
tomatoes, like tree-ripened peaches, are vastly better flavored than
those artificially ripened. This is the chief reason why tomatoes grown
in hothouses in the vicinity are so much superior to those shipped in
from farther south. After it has come to its most perfect condition on
the plant the fruit deteriorates steadily, whether gathered or allowed
to remain on the vine, and the more rapidly in proportion as the air is
hot and moist. That it be fresh is hardly less essential to the first
quality in a tomato than it is to such things as lettuce and cucumbers.

=Gathering.=--As is the case with most horticultural products, the best
methods of gathering, handling and marketing the fruit vary greatly with
the conditions under which the fruit was grown and how it is to be used,
and i