The Canadian Horticulturist. 



353 



POINTS OF MERIT IN TOMATOES. 



HIS is the queen of vegetables, and one in which there is as 

 wide a difference between the good and the bad as between 

 a " frost " pear of the hedge-row and a well-grown Seckel. 

 The ideal tomato may vary somewhat in shape, but, what- 

 ever that may be, there should be no deep corrugations cr 

 seams, the fruit being nearly smooth, although a slight 

 depression along the line of natural division is not objec" 

 tionable. The stem should always be relatively small, and set in a very shallow 

 basin. When it is large and set deeply into the fruit it is accompanied by a 

 pithy core extending into the fruit, and ruining it for slicing or for canning. The 

 stem end of the fruit should be nearly flat or slightly rounded. When there are 

 any marked projections here they will be sure to be imperfectly ripened at 

 the time the rest of the fruit is in the best condition. As to color, tastes differ ; 

 but I have never yet found a tomato of the purple tint of the old Fiji, which was 

 not of a sharp, hard, metallic-like acid, very much less pleasant than the mild, 

 fruit-like acid of the true red or scarlet tomato ; and I am quite certain that, 

 were we to select ten of the best varieties, quality to rule, eight at least — and, I 

 believe more likely nine or all of them — would be found to be clear, bright red, 

 with little trace of purple. 



Of the interior of the fruit, the general opinion as to what constitutes merit 

 is certainly at fault. Most people only ask for a solid, seedless, pulpless flesh. 

 Fortunately, the fruit is too good to develop any such worthless variety as is thus 

 called for. If you carefully examine a tomato you will find that the greatest 

 amount, and by far the finest flavor, is found in the pulp surrounding the seed, 

 and that the flesh surrounding the fruit next to the skin is quite different, and 

 greatly superior, to that in the interior divisions, which many people value as mak- 

 ing a solid fruit. Often these interior divisions are made up of perfectly flavorless, 

 hard, but corky tissue. This is the case in an exceedingly large fruited sort 

 which I have grown several years for comparison, but have not considered 

 worthy of a name or of general cultivation, although I am certain that this 

 variety can be made to produce the largest fruit having the smallest proportionate 

 weight of seed and the largest proportion of dry matter of any of the hundreds 

 of sorts I have tried ; and yet I have seen the Mikado recommended as the 

 best variety, because it stood first of any the writer had tested in these respects. 

 My ideal tomato, as far as interior is concerned, is one in which the outer circle 

 of flesh next to the skin is very thick, the thicker the better ; the interior divisions 

 few, and, consequently, comparatively large, and each completely filled with pulp. 

 Seeds are of themselves a disadvantage, but as we never have pulp except sur- 

 rounding seeds, we shall have to have a fair quantity of them in order to get the 



