AND G A R D E N E il' S JOURNAL. 



I'Ulil.IStlED RY JOSEPH BRKCK & CO., NO. 52. NORTH MARKET STREET, (Agricultural Wabkhodse.)— T. G. FESSENDEN, EDITOR. 



xoi.. XV. 



BOSTON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, APRIL 26, 1837- 



fiU. 42. 



^^^^^n^lSW^^'&a 



(From the Poulhern Agriculturist.) 



TO.MATOES. 



Their cultivation, and medicinal qualitita. 



Mr Editor, — In my eslimato of tliis valuable 

 vegetable, I may, no doubt, be called an entliu- 

 siast. I5ut, sir, I liope what I shall say in regard 

 to the plant, inay have a tendency to bring the 

 attention of farmers to its more extensive cultiva- 

 tion. 



This is now the proper season for planting 

 them. If the seed has not been planted before, 

 they may be now planted in the following man- 

 ner: Sow tlie seed very thin, in drills well ma- 

 nured and well pulverised. When large enough 

 to transplant, make bills about four feet apart 

 each way, aud manure them well. In each hill 

 set one or two plants, and as early after tlie plants 

 take as possible, place sticks or bushes near them 

 to run upon, like peas. 



To have them late in the fall, sow seed in May, 

 and set out the young plants when large enough, 

 as described above. 



It is not generally known, that this vegetaljle 

 when just ripening, makes ])if s or tarts of the most 

 e.xquisite flavor. But it is to their medicinal qual- 

 ities, 1 would particularly call the attinlion of 

 your readers. In speaking upi>Ti this head, Dr 

 Cook observes: "Of the hygienic or healthful 

 properties of the tomato. Prof. Rafinesque says — 

 " It is everywhere deemed a very healthy vegeta- 

 ble, and an invaluable article for food." 



Prof. Dickson writes, — " I think it more whole- 

 some than any other acid sauce." 



Roblcy Dunglison, M. I)., late Professor in the 

 University of Virginia, and now of the University 

 of RIaryland, says, — '■ It may be looked u))on as 

 one of the most wholesome and valuable esculents 

 that belong to the vegetable kingdom." 



Many other like authorities might be quoted in 

 proof of its hygienic powers, but I consider it 

 unnecessary ; I vvill only add, that I am led to 

 wonder at the folly and infatuation of many of 

 my professional brethien,in carrying forward the 

 sword of devastation against the health and hap- 

 piness of the human family, in the support of de- 

 leterious substances, to the utter e.xclusion of this 

 article, whose salutary and benign influences upon 

 all who use it, arc so apparent and perspicuous 

 that the most ordinary observer can but ajipreciate 

 them, as well as the most scientific practitioner|Of 

 the healing art ; but I choose to tread the rugged 

 path of duty in placing its virtues before an in- 

 tellectual and readi!ig comiminity — my fellow 

 citizens. For acts of this kind, according to Vir- 

 gil, we may even claim the best delights of Ely- 

 sium ; for he says they " were showered upon 

 those who received wounds for their country, who 

 lived unspotted priests, who uttered verses wor- 

 thy of Apollo, or who, like Very, consecrated their 

 lives to the useful arts.'" 



Mr Thomas writes me, — "I have no jiositive 



evidence within my own experience of its medi- 

 cal properties, though the sauce is very grateful 

 to persons recovering from fever. The late Dr 

 II. G. Spofl^Drd says, — 'I often find myself in- 

 commoded and my health impaired by inaction 

 of the stomach and bowels. This is always in 

 some degree accompanied with a sense of strait- 

 ness of the chest ; and besides a general uneasi- 

 ness and lassitude, with head-ache ami some de- 

 gree of pain in the region of the liver. The ap- 

 petite becomes imperfect, with a peculiar taste of 

 the mouth as if something was wanting. The 

 tomato at once removes the taste of the mouth ; 

 ill a little lime (piickens the action of the liver 

 and bowels, and removes all those symi)toins and 

 feelings. It seems to me that of all articles of 

 diet or medicine that have come to my knowledge, 

 the tomato acts most directly upon the liver. Sev- 

 eral other persons of my acquaintance have de- 

 rived similar benefits from its use. It has saved 

 me from the necessity of using cathartics." 



Prof. Rafinesque says, — " As a medicinal arti- 

 cle for the liver, etc., it is a new fact, unknown 

 even in Europe and India." 



The Indians use it as a diureti"^, and to ex- 

 pel concretions from the kidneys. E. B. Barton, 

 M. D., Professor of tlie Medical College of Louis- 

 iana, writes me under date — 



New Orleans, Nov. 28, 1835. 



" I have read your jiublication on this subject 

 (the tomato) with great interest, and if subsequent 

 experience rihall sustain your position of its hav» 

 ing a specific influence on the liver, and being a 

 substitute for calomel, you will confer lasting ben- 

 efit upon your country, and erect an enduring 

 monument to your own reputation. In it \ most 

 cordially wish you success, both as a philanthro- 

 pist and an American — and 1 feelingly do it after 

 having, for 16 years, witnessed the horrible rava- 

 ges committed by calomel." 



I have used with decided advantage in a vari- 

 ety of complaints, and hope to be able to exhibit 

 its remedial powers in so lucid a manner, that all 

 attempts at refutation will prove illusory and va- 

 pid. I shall consider its medicinal agency as ap- 

 plicable to special cases under separate hi.-ads. 



Dtspepsi A— (Indigestion.) 



In a public lecture, introductory to my course 

 in the Willoughby University of Lake Erie, in 

 the fall of 1834, 1 stated that the tomato, when 

 used as an article of diet, was almost a sovereign 

 remedy for dyspepsia or indigestion : and from 

 subsequent ex])erienee, I am more fully confirmed 

 in the opinion. The tomato effects a cure in dys- 

 peptic cases — 



1st. By its power of solution. Since my np- 

 pointineut in the University of Bellevue Hospital, 

 I have received testimony of an indubitable char- 

 acter, that the tomato possesses, in an eminent de- 

 gree, the power of dissolving the food in the stom- 

 ach, and thus supjilying the place of the gastric 

 juice, when there is a deficiency in the secretion 



of that fluid, (and there usually is in such cases,) 

 either in quality or quantity ; and that is undoubt- 

 edly, out of the body, in the same temperature, a 

 most powerful solvent. — Dr Cook^s Treatise. 



These vegetables may be preserved throughout 

 the entire year, by putting them up in dry sand, 

 or rice cliafl^. Or they may be kept well by put- 

 ting them lip in stone jars, and covering them 

 with a strong pickle of salt and water. Just be- 

 fore using them, soak them an hour or so in fresh 

 water. Charleston Neck. 



(From the Silk Grower.) 



At a quarterly meeting of the Cheshire County 

 .■Agricultural Association, liolden at the Town Hall 

 ill Keene, on Thursday the 6th day of April, a. d. 



1837— 



The Association was called to order by B. 

 Cooke, Esq. the first Vice President. 



The discussion was then commenced on the 

 questions contained in the notice. 



It was continued with spirit and interest for 

 some time by Messrs Woodward, Conant, Rich, 

 Siiiiond.s, Cummings, Smith, GrifUn, Cooke. Skin- 

 ner and Harvey. A statement was a'so read from 

 Col. B. Farley, in relation to the culture of Ru- 

 ta Baga. 



Some other points of discussion were touched 

 upon, when the meeting adjourned to 7 o'clock 

 this evening. 



Evening : — Met agreeably to adjournment. 



On motion of Mr Cooke, the following resolu- 

 tion was passed : Resolved, That the thanks of 

 this association be tendered to Col. Smith for the 

 able Address with which we have been favored 

 this evening, and that a copy of it be solicited for 

 publication in all the papers in this town. 



Voted to dissolve the meeting. 



Attest, J. K. Smith, Sec'y. 



Remarks of Mr Conant of Jaffrey, at the luto 

 Agricnhural Meeting. 



The subject proposed in the notice, having b«j^«i 

 r'^Ad, after .some remarks of Mr Woodward of G;^^^ 

 Slimy Mr Conant rose and said : 



Mr President : — The subject of diseussfon at; 

 this meeting seems (o li^i fit*' : The imi;ortanc6 

 of a more general cultivation of roots as food for 

 domestic animals. 



Sir — This is a subject of no minor iiniiortanee, 

 it is one well worthy your attention ; as it deeply 

 interests every farmer, whether he has a stock of 

 neat cattle, flock of sheep, or horses. As to |io- 

 tatoes in particular, I deem them of vast impor- 

 tance, and the most valuable root we raise as food 

 for all cattle of the farm ; horses, cows, sheep, 

 pigs, and likewise for poultry, potatoes are all but 

 invaluable. It has been said in an address be- 

 fore the American Hirtorical Society, by an emi- 

 nent son of N. Hampshire, the Hon. Levi Wood- 

 bury, (and correctly too, as I believe) that a "sin- 

 gle American vegetable, the humble potato, has 

 alone more than repaid Europe in real wealth and 

 comfort, for all the expenses of the discovery, am) 



