THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST. 141 



SOME BASE SLANDERS REFUTED. 



(from an exchange.) 



The tomato is an excellent article of food, notwithstanding the assertion 

 of many who claim that it is nob healthy, produces cancers, etc., etc. Now, 

 1 believe it to be one of the healthiest of vegetables. Note its ruddy hue, 

 its fine smooth skin, and its plump, well-rounded form ; sui'ely there is 

 nothing to indicate disease, and there is every reason to believe that its 

 general health is equal to, if not better, than that of any other vegetable 

 that exists. Take, for instance, the beet ; mark the fatality that attends 

 their growth ! Dead beets can be counted by thousands in every community 

 and in every climate, who have been nurtured under the most favorable 

 circumstances — as regards sanitary measures — for their healthful growth. 

 Even the potato has its almost yearly epidemic which carries off countless 

 numbers, causing bitter sorrow, and leaving scarcely a dry eye in the whole 

 Murphy community. They have other troubles also ; 'tis the early potato 

 that catches the worm — or, rather, that is caught by it — and no vermifuge,. 

 Ijowever powerful, has yet been discovered that covex's the ground sufficiently 

 to pi'otect it from the fell destroyer. 



Cucumbers and onions are very far from being immaculate. The former 

 are cut down — or, rathei', cut up — in the heydey of their youth, as it were, 

 and seldom live to a green — i. e., a yellow old age. Even in their infancy 

 they are continually getting in a pickle, and are no comfort to themselves 

 nor anybody else. The onion is a confirmed invalid, and if it leaves its 

 bed it is sure to get in a stew. It prides itself somewhat upon its rank in 

 society, but it is in bad odor among its fellows. But I digress. It was 

 not the intention to write up the entire vegetable kingdom, but merely to 

 defend our friend, the tomato, from its traducers. Lettuce return, then, to 

 our subject. 



Find a greater delicacy to preserve — who among you can ? Hope you 

 all can — can all you raise, and raise all you can of this healthy esculent. 

 Then, again, how essential is the tomato for fixing catsup — not to fix cats 

 up by throwing tomatoes at them, though even as missiles they would 

 doubtless prove efficacious. The refuse tomato cans could be used with 

 equal efiect to fix dogs up, if — in the language of the genial Erratic Enriquo 

 — you wish to curtail your house rubbish. What could better " pointer 

 moral or adorn a tail ] " 



Finally, it is claimed that the consumption of the tomato produces 

 cancer and the like. It has been fully demonstrated that the tomato is a 

 perfectly healthy vegetable, therefore its consumption is a mere fallacy. It 

 never bas the consumption. As was recently remarked to a prominent 

 ])hysician : " We defy you to prove it, or to prove that tomatoes produce 

 cancers — we don't believe you cancer, in fact we know you can't sir !" 



Enough of the tomato — though we never — {. e., hardly ! ! ! (I was 



going to say that we seldom got enough of them, when something stinick 

 me.) To conclude, let me hope all reasonable-thinking persons will see the 

 force of our plea for the tomato, and enjoy them while the season is yet 

 upon us. 



