CHAPTER XXXIII. 

 THE TOMATO. 



Tomato or Love Apple. Lycopersicum esculentum. 



French, German, Spanish, and Portuguese, tomate; 

 Dutch, tomaat; Italian, porno d'oro. 



The tomato is one of the most popular, prolific, and 

 profitable of California vegetables. It is grown every- 

 where during the local occurrences of the frost-free period, 

 and in our thermal situations the fruit can be gathered all 

 the year. The earliest fruit in our local markets and the 

 earliest shipments to the East are gathered from vines 

 which have continued growth from the previous summer 

 and autumn, and, encountering no killing frost, are able 

 to fruit through the winter months. Favorable places 

 near the coast in southern California are best known for 

 this winter crop. The winter-grown fruit is, of course, in- 

 ferior to the summer and fall crop, though it is excellent 

 enough to command high prices for table use until the 

 earliest yield from spring plantings is to be had. When 

 this new crop comes in, the fruit from the hold-over plants 

 becomes cheaper, but is still marketed until the new crop 

 becomes abundant. In this way one year's plants in 

 southern thermal situations lap over upon the yield of the 

 following year in the earliest interior sections at the north, 

 and the tomato supply from open air plants is continuous 

 through out the year, though the supply regions are hun- 

 dreds of miles distant from each other. The fact that the 

 north produces earlier spring tomatoes from new plants 

 than in the south is difficult for distant students to realize. 

 It is conditioned upon ocean influences and local topog- 

 raphy, which at the south prevent frosts which winter-kill 

 the old plants at the north, and at the same time postpone 



