CHAPTER I
OBTAINING GOOD TOMATO STOCK
Value of Good Tomato Stock
Obtaining a good quality of tomatoes at a price which is not prohibitive is a problem which in many localities is becoming more difficult to canners and catsup makers each year. Every experienced manufacturer knows that regardless of the expertness with which he may work up his tomatoes into the finished product, he cannot expect to get good quality unless he has good stock to begin with. It is true that by using intelligence and extreme care in the manufacturing processes one manufacturer will make better pulp or catsup from tomatoes of fair quality than another man can get from the best quality of stock. This same care and intelligence applied, however, in working up high quality tomatoes will probably show a greater difference in the finished products than was apparent in the tomatoes from which these products were made; in other words, the goodness of good tomatoes becomes accentuated by the manufacturing process.
In order to insure as large a proportion as possible of good quality stock, as well as a good yield per acre in tonnage, manufacturers are each year realizing the necessity of closer co-operation with the farmer. Where in growing tomatoes under contract it was formerly largely up to the farmer to buy his seed and raise his plants and set them out, it is now the usual custom to supply the farmer with seed of the desired variety and of high germination test, and in many cases to go a step farther and supply him with plants six to eight inches high, ready for setting out in the field. Unquestionably, the best results are secured by growing the plants for the farmer. The average farmer does not go about the raising of his plants in an intelligent way, and he will not devote the time to the plant-raising business that it should have.
Plant Raising
Most packers are agreed that the best plant is raised by starting the seeds in rows in hot beds, transplanting to cold frames when they are two to four inches high to harden them and make them stocky, and again transplanting to the field when the plants are six to eight inches high. This method produces a dark green, bushy, thick-stemmed plant of high vitality, which is so essential to a good yield. What a contrast to the average plant raised by the farmer—the seed often broadcasted, either in a hot bed or in a spot in the garden where the soil has not been specially prepared for plant raising, and when the plants, a large number of which are thin, pale green, and spindly looking, attain a height of anywhere from six inches to a foot they are all set out in the field and allowed to struggle along as best they can. When one looks at the kind of plants that are so often set out he can see at least one reason why yields of from three to seven tons per acre are so often obtained from ground which should yield twice that much, and why the plants are easy victims to blight and other diseases.
A prominent canner recently told me that by raising the plants for his farmers he had increased the average yield 4 tons per acre.
Use of Fertilizer
So many articles have been written on tomato culture for canning plants by experienced horticulturists that the subject will not be dealt with extensively here. In these articles emphasis is usually laid on the desirability of the use of commercial fertilizer, not only to increase the yield, but to hasten the maturing of the crop so that a large proportion of it can be harvested before frost.
My experience testifies to the wisdom of this in practically all cases, and with late maturing varieties such as the Stone tomato, in regions subject to early frost, and especially where planted on low ground, it is absolutely essential that fertilizer be used if a good percentage of the crop is to be harvested.
Methods in East and West
In the Tri-States—that is, Delaware, Maryland, and New Jersey—quite a different situation exists from that in the middle west or far west. The western packer has practically all of his tomatoes grown under contract, while the Tri-State packer, although he tries to contract as much acreage or tonnage as possible at a reasonable figure, is up against the competitive buying of the open market for a large proportion of his raw stock, as there are always a large number of farmers who are willing to gamble that the coming season will be a good one for playing the open market. In this case the buyer usually cannot be as particular about the quality of the tomatoes he buys as can the packer who has his tomatoes all grown under contract at a specified price, and who can exercise supervision over his farmers. This is particularly true in seasons of short crop, when the grower sells his tomatoes on the market and can afford to be very independent, and buyers are wildly forcing up the price by competitive bidding, and taking whatever they can get. Even if the eastern grower is under contract for his entire crop, if the crop is short, and high prices are prevailing on the market, it is the exceptional grower who will live up to his contract, and often to get an excuse for breaking his contract he will deliver very poor tomatoes right along in the hope that they will be objected to, thus giving him the liberty of disposing of them elsewhere.
The eastern packer, however, is blessed with a longer season in which to operate. While in the west there are seldom enough tomatoes to justify a run at the factory before August 15th, the Tri-States packer starts in on the early crop about the 25th of July, and his crop is not as liable to be severely injured by an early frost as is the western crop.
Canning and preserving plants in the west, being scattered rather sparsely over a very large territory, and being farther away from the large centers of population than in the east, the western packer is able to get a large percentage of his tomatoes hauled to the factory by wagon. This is indeed a big advantage, not only in the saving of freight and handling expense, but in the condition of the fruit when delivered to the factory. Probably having been picked not more than twenty-four hours before delivery, the wagon-hauled tomatoes are solid, and because the skin is not broken by repeated handling, thus preventing the growth of molds, they require very little sorting, in fact, no sorting at all in some cases. A load of tomatoes which requires no sorting at all, however, is unusual. If the packer can get his growers to use spring wagons for hauling tomatoes, it is a big advantage, especially if the fruit must be held any length of time at the factory. If the wagon-hauled tomatoes can be worked up quickly the packer gets 100 per cent value for them, which he very seldom does get on shipped tomatoes, which commonly undergo a loss of between 5 and 20 per cent in shipment, depending upon the time involved in shipment, the ripeness of the fruit, the amount of handling it received, the condition of the weather, the kind of crate in which the fruit is packed, and the amount of ventilation it received in transit.
Shipping Tomatoes
Shipment by water, although slow, has the advantage of smoothness of transit, and the crates or baskets of tomatoes are not subjected to the frequent joltings of rail shipments, and it is to be remembered that every jolt makes the tomatoes settle to a certain extent in the crates and mashes the tomatoes in the bottom layers. The best car for rail shipments is the slatted car or stock car, which permits of better circulation than any of the other types. A box car should never be used, as it allows the fruit to heat very badly, and there is no circulation of air. The crates in the slatted cars should be so stacked as to allow as much circulation of air through the car as possible. However, care must be taken that the crates are so stacked that they will not shift. A small air space can always be left at the end of every other row on each side without endangering the stability of the crates, and a large air space can be left at the top.
Tomato Crates
One advantage in the use of the basket over the crate in shipments is the advantage of better circulation of air through the piled baskets of fruit, due to the conical shape of the basket. Good ventilation is thus supplied without danger of the baskets shifting during shipment. The ⅝-bushel basket is used almost universally in the east, while in the west the crate holding a bushel is the common container. The construction of the crate is a more important item than is often thought. The most important point, of course, is strength in construction, and the use of a wood which will not warp easily by alternate soaking and drying out, allowing the nails to become loose and the bottoms to begin to fall out of the crates after a half season’s use. The slats of the crates should have rounded, smooth edges so as not to cut the surface of the tomatoes when they are jolted and weighted down during shipment. The slats should be only close enough together to hold the small tomatoes, so as to permit of as much air circulation as possible. This particularly applies to the bottom of the crates, which become soggy and musty after a little use, and the openings soon become clogged up with tomato substance. It is important to turn a steam hose over the bottoms of such crates to clean them out before returning to the point of shipment. If the empty crates pass along on a chain belt after dumping, this steaming can be accomplished easily. Accumulated decaying tomato substance in the bottom slats not only rots out the crates, but contaminates otherwise good tomatoes every time the crate is used. The crate should also be as shallow as will permit of easy handling, so as to distribute the weight of the tomatoes over as much surface as possible. A shallow, broad crate is preferable to a deep, narrow one.
Degrees of Ripeness for Shipping
The proper degree of ripeness for tomatoes to be shipped depends, of course, upon the length of time it will take for them to arrive at their destination. Dead-ripe tomatoes will stand very little handling and shipping, particularly if the weather is warm and damp, as it so frequently is during tomato season. It is important, too, not to have the tomatoes delivered to the shipping station too underripe, as they are very apt to rot before they become red enough to cook up into a product of good color. That the employee in charge of receiving tomatoes at the shipping point should be a man of experience and good judgment as well as tact in dealing with the farmers, is apparent. So much depends upon the control he exercises over the farmers in getting them to pick their fruit at the proper degree of ripeness. If he falters, is uncertain, and changes his mind a few times, he is lost, as the farmers soon lose confidence in his judgment.
It is always difficult to impress upon the farmer the fact that tomatoes gain in weight during the ripening process, and the riper they have their tomatoes the more they get in dollars when they drive up on the scales. This argument cannot be advanced when the tomatoes are bought by the basket, as they are in the east, but when paid for according to weight and not volume, the ripeness of his tomatoes is an important point for the farmer to watch. At the tail end of the season when frosts are threatening, this argument of the increased weight of tomatoes which are red ripe all over of course loses its effect entirely. All the farmer is interested in at that time is in getting as many of his tomatoes as possible accepted before a heavy frost finishes them. At this time increased vigilance at the receiving end is necessary.
Careful Handling at Factory
The less handling crates or baskets of tomatoes receive, the better. Every packer wants to eliminate handling as much as possible to conserve labor, but when one sees the laborers around the average plant heaving crates of tomatoes around as though they were pig iron, he wonders if the manager fully realizes the effect of this bouncing of heavy crates of tomatoes on to trucks, receiving platforms, etc. It is just as easy, or almost as easy, to set the crates down gently, but the laborers who do this work must be constantly reminded of it. You do get tired of constantly hammering at them, but it is surely worth the effort. A common attitude for the men to take is that the tomatoes are all going to get mashed up anyway pretty soon, so what’s the difference. When you consider the fact that crates of tomatoes are commonly handled from six to eight times before they reach the sorting belt, this handling often consisting of dropping the crates down so hard that the top tomatoes almost bounce out, it is no wonder that when they are spread out on the sorting belt the bottom layer of each crate is mashed and moldy, so that half of these bottom tomatoes have to be thrown away.
Varieties
Any of the brilliant red varieties of tomatoes are suitable for catsup or pulp making. Those varieties having a purplish cast should be avoided, as they cook up into a product having a brownish color. The smooth, round varieties, such as the Stone, are especially good for peeling, while the flat varieties, and those having a very coarse, uneven surface, are well suited for pulp or catsup.
Storing Tomatoes
For storing the tomatoes at the factory until they can be put over the sorting belts the open-air storage is used almost universally, and it seems to be the only method which can be economically employed at a plant which handles large quantities of tomatoes. I have seen the wet storage method in use at a small plant where the receipts only amount to a few hundred bushels a day on good days, and less than a hundred on many days when the weather is very bad, and it was liked very much by the plant manager. The tomatoes, as soon as received, were dumped into a large concrete tank of cold water, which was kept fairly fresh by letting fresh water run into it constantly, with an overflow at the other side of the tank, and a large revolving paddle at one side of the tank kept the water in motion. Attached to this paddle was a series of flights on an endless chain, which, when thrown into gear, carried the tomatoes to the sorting belt.
The argument advanced in favor of the wet storage method by the operator of this plant was that at certain times in the season their receipts of tomatoes were very small, that is, at the beginning and at the close of the season, and during stretches of cold, rainy weather, and at such times they only made a run every other day, or possibly only twice a week, and that the tomatoes kept much better in wet storage.
The tomatoes were clean when delivered to the sorting belt, and although they received very little sorting, and only one spraying after they left the storage tank, the count of molds, yeasts and spores and bacteria on their pulp was fairly low.
The wet storage method could undoubtedly be used at large plants, and might prove profitable during periods of glut, as there is no doubt but what tomatoes will keep better in wet storage than in the open air. It would take a lot of tanks for a large plant, however, and large operators are not inclined to look favorably on the idea.
In open-air storage the crates of tomatoes should be stacked so as to leave an air space between each crate, and if stacked inside of a building, all the windows and doors should be thrown open to allow as free a circulation of air as possible.
Stemless Tomatoes
Most tomatoes are delivered to the factory with the stems on, but I know of one plant where they are all received stemless, and the quality of the pulp made from them simply cannot be beat. There surely must be an undesirable taste imparted by all these green stems in the cooking process. Of course, where the cold pulping process is used, that is, the tomatoes pulped cold directly after sorting and washing, these stems are eliminated before any cooking is done. In the hot pulping process, however, and when the tomatoes are put in a crusher instead of a pulp machine, the stems are cooked along with the rest of the pulp. The operator of the plant referred to above pays a bonus of a dollar a ton to his contractors for having the tomatoes delivered stemless, and he believes he gets that dollar back and more, too, in the price he gets for his product, which is very fancy.