or the succeeding crop. It is true that the
deficiency in potash may be supplied, but it is not so easy to supply it
in a condition in which it is possible for the roots of the tomato to
take it in. Unlike potatoes, tomatoes do not do well on new land,
whether it be newly cleared timber lands or new breaking of prairie.
Clover leaves the land in better condition for tomatoes than any other
of the commonly grown farm crops, while for second choice I prefer one
of peas, beans, corn, or wheat in the order named.

One of the most successful tomato growers I know of, whose soil is a
rich, dark clay loam, prepares for the crop, as follows: Very late in
the fall or early in the spring he gives a clover sod a heavy dressing
of manure and plows it under. In the spring he prepares the ground by
frequent cultivation and plants it with early sweet corn or summer
squash. At the time of the last cultivation of these crops he sows
clover seed, covering it with a cultivator having many small teeth, and
rarely fails to get a good stand and a good growth of young clover
before the ground freezes. In the spring he plows this under, running
the plow as deep as possible and following in the furrow with a
sub-soiler which stirs, but does not bring the sub-soil to the surface.
He then gives the field a heavy dressing with wood ashes and puts it
into the best possible tilth before planting his tomatoes. This grown
usually harvests at least 500 bushels to the acre and has made a crop of
over 1,000 bushels.

=Early market.=--In some sections of the South where the soil is light
and the growers depend almost wholly on the use of large quantities of
commercial fertilizer, they seem to meet with the best success by using
the same field for several successive crops, but in some places they
succeed best with plantings following a crop of cowpeas or other green
soiling crops plowed under, with a good dressing of lime.

CHAPTER VII

Fertilizers

The experiences and opinions of different gardeners and writers vary
greatly as to the amount and kind of fertilizer necessary for the
production of the maximum crop of tomatoes. If the question were as to
the growth of vine all would agree that the more fertilizer used and the
richer the soil, the better. Some growers act as if this were equally
true as to fruit, while others declare that one can easily use too much
fertilizer and get the ground too rich not only for a maximum but for a
profitabl