l6 TOMATO CULTURE 



glass and in borders some 130 bushels of ripe fruit. 

 It is stated that the growth that year exceeded the 

 demand, and that the fruit obtained was of extraordi- 

 nary size, some exceeding 12 inches in circumference 

 and weighing 12 ounces each. Thomas Meehan states 

 in Gardeners' Monthly for February, 1880, that on 

 January 8, of that year, he saw growing in the green- 

 houses on Senator Cannon's place near Harrisburg, 

 Pa., at least i bushel of ripe fruits, none of which 

 were less than 10 inches in circumference, — a showing 

 which compares with the best to be seen to-day. 



''^^ Throughout southern Europe the value of the fruit 

 for use in soups and as a salad seems to have been at 

 once recognized, and it came into quite general use, 

 especially in Spain and Italy, during the 17th century; 

 but in northern Europe and England, though the plant 

 was grown in botanical gardens and in a few private 

 places as a curiosity and for the beauty of its fruit, 

 this was seldom eaten, being commonly regarded as 

 unhealthy and even poisonous, and on this account, 

 and probably because of its supposed aphrodisiacal 

 qualities, it did not come into general use in those 

 northern countries until early in the 19th century. 



y-^ First mention in America, I find of its being grown 

 for culinary use, was in Virginia in 178 1. In 1788 a 

 Frenchman in Philadelphia made most earnest efforts 

 to get people to use the fruit, but with little success, 

 and similar efforts by an Italian in Salem, Mass., in 

 1802, were no more successful. The first record I 

 can find of the fruit being regularly quoted in the 

 market was in New Orleans in 1812, and the earliest 

 records I have been able to find of the seed being 



