DEPARTMENT OF HORTICULTURE. 233 



The Diehl Mediterranean and the imported varieties were from seed fur- 

 nished by the National Department of Agriculture. 



The Acadian (a name I use to designate the variety, as it came to us 

 nameless) was from seed sent us by Mr. Geo. M. Selleck, Imlay City, Mich. 

 A variety secured by selection and yielding well, Mr. S. informs me. 



We invite the suggestions of farmers and all interested ; that in the con- 

 tinuance of this work of testing varieties, etc., the most practical results are 

 secured 



SAMUEL JOHNSON, 

 Agkicultueal College, ) Prof, of Aqriculture and 



\ 



Sept. 4, 1886. \ Superintendent of the Farm. 



No. 19.— DEPAETMENT OF HORTICULTURE AND LANDSCAPE 



GARDENING. 



NOTES ON TOMATOES. 



Seventy-six so-called varieties of tomatoes have been grown in the college 

 garden this year. It was the intention to grow all the sorts advertised in 

 American catalogues, but two or three kinds were overlooked. There are 

 several reasons for undertaking this experiment. There has been very little 

 attention given to tomato culture in scientific or experimental establishments, 

 although the importance of the crop is very great. The varieties of tomatoes 

 are now so numerous and their individual merits so evenly praised that the in- 

 expert cultivator is confused. The tomato rot is also becoming a serious 

 difficulty. Methods of training and culture need to be discussed. Moreover, 

 there has been no scientific discussion, so far as I know, of the methods or 

 directions of variation, the origins of varieties, etc. 



The most important as well as the most difficult of these problems is that of 

 determining which varieties are duplicates. There is probably no garden plant 

 which is so difficult to study in this respect as the tomato, from the fact that 

 varieties are characterized almost entirely by the color, size and shape of a fruit 

 which is of all others the most variable. Moreover, the tomato has been in 

 general cultivation so short a time that varieties are not yet fixed. Add to 

 these facts the hasty and bungling methods or lack of method of seedsmen and 

 ■others in securing the so-called new varieties, the wide variations of the same 

 varieties on different soils and under different managements and the frequent 

 mixing of stocks by careless parties, and the task of determining duplicates 

 appears to be almost hopeless. But the very difficulty of the task is all the 

 more reason why it should be grasped. This whole matter of determining the 

 synonymy or the duplicates in cultivated plants, together with the reformation 

 of garden nomenclature, is exceedingly important. None are so well qualified 

 to undertake this work as many of our seedsmen and it seems strange that they 

 should be the very ones who make the work necessary. The time can certainly 

 not be far distant when the most popular seedsmen will be those who exercise 

 the most care in excluding ''novelties" and unnecessary varieties. 

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