s much time
to ripen, and when ripe is firm-fleshed and will remain usable as long
as a peach, to those which 24 hours after reaching their full size are
fully colored and ripe, and in 24 hours more are so over-ripe and soft
that they will break open of their own weight.

These are only some of the varietal differences of the tomato. Are such
differences of practical importance? I think they are, and that a wise
selection of the type best suited to one's own particular conditions and
requirements is one of the most essential requisites of satisfactory
tomato culture. How important it seems to practical tomato growers may
be illustrated by an actual case.

In a certain section of New Jersey the money-making crop is early
tomatoes, and they are grown to such an extent that from an area with a
radius of not exceeding 5 miles they have shipped as much as 15,000
bushels in one day, and the shipments will often average 8,000 bushels
for days together. They have tried a great number of sorts, but have
settled upon a certain type of a well-known variety as that best suited
to their conditions and needs. Seeds of this variety which are supposed
to produce plants of the exact type wanted can be bought from seedsmen
for 10 cents an ounce and at much lower rates for larger quantities,
but when one of the most successful growers of that locality, because of
change of occupation, offered seed selected by him for his own use for
sale at auction, it brought $3 an ounce. This price was paid because of
the confidence of the bidders that the seed could be depended upon to
produce plants of the exact type wanted for their conditions; and I was
assured that the use of this high-priced seed actually added very
largely to the profits from every field in that vicinity in which it was
used, but the use of some of the same lot of seed by planters in Florida
resulted in financial loss because the type of plant produced was not
suited to their conditions and requirements.

A wise answer can only be given after a study of each case, and no one
can do this so well as the planter himself. He should know, as no one
else can know, his own conditions and requirements, and should be able
to form very exact ideas of just what he wants, and the doing so is, in
my opinion, one of the most important requisites for satisfactory tomato
growing. I also believe that it is as impossible for a man to answer
offhand the question, "What is the best variety of toma