242 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER, 



Pell. 15, 1832, 



LOVE APPLE— TOMATTO, Fr. 



Solan utn lycopersicu m . 

 This is an animal, a native of Soiitli America, 

 tlie vines of which grow to the length of four and 

 six feet, and produce great quainitics of fruit. 

 VVlten once introduced into the garden, it propa- 

 gates itself by the seeds which are scattered upon 

 the groiuid. The tomatto is used as a pickle 

 when green, and in its ripe state, in confectionarj-, 

 as a preserve, in soups, and for a pleasant ketchup. 

 It is also eaten raw, when sliced and seasoned, 

 like cucumbers. But far the most extensive use 

 of this article is in the form of sauce, to be eaten 

 with meats. In the south of Europe, and in the 

 southern and middle States, its cultivation and 

 consumption are very great ; and its medicinal 

 properties are deemed liighly salutary to persons 

 of dyspeptic habits, aswell as to the sedentary and 

 studious. There are seven varieties enumerated, 

 diliering from each other in size, shape, or color. 

 Of these, the large red is considered best for culi- 

 nary purposes. A single plant will often produce 

 a peck of fruit. Few persons at first like the 

 tomatto ; but use soon renders it agreeable, and in 

 time, very desirable. 



The tomatto will grow in any soil, but thrives 

 best in tolerably stiff loam. Although the self- 

 sown plants which spring up, will ripen their truit 

 in part, yet as it is desirable to liave an early crop 

 for summer use, the seed may be sown in a hot 

 bed in April, and the plants put in the open ground 

 when the season is so advanced as to have them 

 thrive. They may be readily transplanted with 

 the dibble. If tiie soil is rich, set the plants 

 three feet apart, keep the groimd about them loose 

 and free from weeds, and support the vines as they 

 extend, in an upright or sloping position, by stakes, 

 frames, or brush wood. In this way tlie liiiil 

 conies to earlier maturity and is more abundant. 



To make tomatto sauce. Take half a peck or 

 more of ripe fruit, dip them separately in boiling 

 water, and divest them of the outer skin, which 

 separates then readily ; then slice the fruit, put it 

 into a sauce pan with salt enough to season, but 

 without any water or other liquid, cover the sauce 

 pan, and set it on embers to stew gradually. 

 When it has become a mass, take off the covej-, 

 that it may be reduced, by evaporation, to a projier 

 consistence for the table. Thus prepared, it is 

 said the tomatto may be kept, in tight bottles, for 

 winter use. J. B. 



N. B. — Last season I pul a quantity of the ripe 

 fruit into strong brine ; and from partial ex|)eri- 

 ments made in soups, I judged and so published 

 in the Genesee Farmer, that it might be fresh- 

 ened and used for sauce. But on having the 

 experiment made, I find I was mistaken : It r 

 tained the a|:pearance, but had wholly lost the 

 flavor of the fresh gathered fruit. 



Albany .Wirscri/. 



Effects of whiskey in tlie .irmy S,-c. — The follow 

 ing appalling statement was recently made at 

 Washington, In' the Hon. Mr Wayne, member of 

 Congress from Georgia. 



'In our little army of 5649 men there have been 

 it is stated, SSS'J courts martial within five years, of 

 whicli five sixths are chargeable to intemperance. 

 And also 4049 desertions, of which almost all are 

 chargeable to inlem])erance. Desertion alone has 

 cost the Uuitod States >:'i'5'i,(JlG, in five years. Add 

 to this the declension uf mpi-al feeling, the disease 

 and premature deaths produced, and what a hide- 



ous aggregate docs it give of the ravages of iutem- 

 perance.' 



The British government, ever attentive to the 

 true interests of their soldiery, and sensible of the 

 debasing and ruinous offects of ardent spirits in 

 the army and navy have lately issued a ^\arrant 

 annulling the s])irit ration which contains the fol- 

 lowing memorable words : 



' Instead of the wine or spirits hitherto granted 

 as a component part of the daily ration of provi- 

 sions, an equivalent in money to be styled liquor 

 money,' shall in future be given on all foreign sta- 

 tions where rations of provisions are issued under 

 the authority of this warrant.' 



Great cflbrts have been made to effect a refor- 

 mation among the navigators of the great canals in 

 New York. Mr T. Joy gives the following as the 

 result of his investigation as to the effects the last 

 season. 



' While I acknowledge there is yet much 

 room for improvement among oiu" canal navigators, 

 I am happy to say the (mst season has been one of 

 wonderfid reform. Formerly it was the practice 

 of almost every " line" boat, to keep a bar on board 

 and the sale of liquor to passengers, was calculated 

 upon by the captain as a source of peciniiary pro- 

 fit. Now I believe I may say with certainty, tliat 

 these bars have been entirely abandoned, and no 

 liquor is now carried on board any of the fieight 

 boats, for the supply of either the iiassengers or 

 crews ; hands are now hired with an understand- 

 ing that no liquor is to be furnished them. Drivers 

 are now bound in the written contracts which are 

 made with them when liired, to abstain entirely 

 fi'om the use of ardent spirits, and a violation of 

 this condition is a forfeiture of a month's wages, 

 and a liability to be forthwith discharged. That 

 these rules are fully and strictly complied with ir 

 all cases, I do not ])rciend, but I trust, that the timr 

 is not far distant, when a departure from them in 

 the lea.st degree, will be looked upon as both dis- 

 honorable and disgraceful. 



' It has been a sulyect of connnon remark, by 

 all who have had intercoinse with our canals du- 

 ring the past season, that more courtesy, quietness, 

 harmony and good feeling i)revailcd among canal 

 boatmen, that was ever before displayed. 



' For one, I am confident that a more perce|)- 

 tible improvement cannot be named, than that 

 which has taken ])lace upon our canals during the 

 past season. Kindness and civility towards each 

 other among boatmen, has taken the place of quar- 

 rels and contentions. Amicable and friendly ad- 

 justment among themselves of disputed rights and 

 other grievances, has taken the place of petty law 

 suits and expensive litigation. And I am told by 

 the most respectable captains upon the canals, that 

 these improvements are attribiued, almost if not 

 entirely, to the cause of temperance. With such 

 encouragements before ns, I trust that this society 

 will not relax its exertions in the good cause, till 

 the use of ardent spirits shall be e.xterminated from 

 among om- canal navigators.' 



Carrots. — There is reason to believe that carrots 

 will answer on fen or mossy land, if a sufficient 

 quantity of ashes be spread on the ground where 

 they are sown ; and it is probable that lime and 

 other manures may raise that valuable crop on 

 peaty soils.-^J'ormera' Magazine, (Scotland). 



Grasshoppers were seen in abundance at Dennig, 

 Cape Cod, 15th and ICth ult. as active as in summer. 



ADDRESS 



FISTIV.L, SEITKMUER 21, 183.. 



BY M A L T H U S A . W A U D , M . D . 



ContinueJ I'rom page 235. 



The term ' Science of Horticulture,' as I under- 

 stand it, implies little else than a systematic ar- 

 rangement and application to horticultural purpo- 

 ses, of the knowledge derived from various other , 

 sciences ; in other words, he is to be esteemed the 

 most sc?c«/i7(c gardener, other things being equal,' 

 who is the most profoundly versed in all those sci- 

 ences v.liich llirow light upon the various processes 

 of Ills art. Now these include not merely the dif- 

 ferent departments of general pliysics, but, in an 

 especial manner, the whole circle of Naturid His- 

 tory ; those causes, therefore, which retarded the 

 progress of N.ttural History, are, to a great extent 

 the same to which must be ascribed the slow ad- 

 vancement of Horticulture. These ar.; in general 

 all those grand sources of prejudice and error, to 

 which the mind of man was subject, before re- 

 leased from its thraldom, by the intro<luction ofthe 

 inductive philosophy of Bacpn, and many of which 

 arc but too prevalent even at the present day ; such 

 as those arising from the infirmities and wa) ward- 

 ness of lunnan nature itself; — the tendencies of 

 the judgment to be biased and corrupted by par- 

 ticular courses of study or lu.bits of life; the ini- 

 |)('rfection of language ; a blind reverence for anti- 

 quity ; the influence of the visionary theories and 

 r<inian:ic phdosophies which prevail in the world ; 

 and Ir.st, though not least, a slavish prostration to 

 the ruthority of great names. 



L'ut Natural History was not one ofthe favorite 

 pu'suits of the revivers of literature; and it was 

 not till long after the effects of Bacon's method of 

 investigation had been fell in other sciences, that 

 any very sensible improvement took place in those 

 whose object is to make us r.cquainted with the 

 works of nature. And yet the scholars of that pe- 

 riod displayed a degree of industry in collecting 

 facts, or rather stories, (for a small part only of 

 them were true) which appears almost incredible. 

 Conrad Gesner, the most considerable of them, is 

 styled by Haller ' a monster of erudition.' Some 

 other cause must therefore be sought to account 

 for the |)henomenon ; nnd the grand secret uliich 

 explains the whole is the want of system, it is 

 system in the application of powers which were be- 

 fore often antagonising or inert, and in the ar- 

 rangement of facts and fragments of knowledge, 

 which, like the scattered syhillinc leaves, were 

 without meaning or use, that has been the grand 

 engine of advancement in the sciences, arts and 

 literature of modern times. But as we understand 

 the term, neither the ancients nor moderns, till to- 

 wards the close of the seventeenth century, had 

 any system in their study of nature. 



It is for this reason, that of all the [jlants describ- 

 ed by Theophrastus and Dioscorides, not a single 

 one can now he satisfactorily identified. Pliny's 

 work is valuable, as collecting all that had been 

 done by the authors before him ; but his descrip- 

 tions are so vague, taken from such uncertain 

 marks, and from comparison with other plants of 

 wiiich wc know nothing, that, as a system of plants, 

 it is perfectly useless. And in this same way. Bo- 

 tany, which has perhaps always been in advance of 

 the other departments of Natural History, went on 

 for fifteen hundred years, till Lobel shadowed out 

 something like a system of classes, which was af- 

 terwardH improved upon by the two Bankins. But 



