UTAH ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 135 
larly spherical to irregular, flat, oblong, or angular in 
certain varieties. 
But what we want to-day is a smooth, round, solid 
tomato of medium size and of few cells or seed cavities. 
It should be attractive in appearance and with a skin 
sufficiently tough to prevent ready cracking and conse- 
quent injury. It should be a heavy yielding strain that 
matures early and that carries a large proportion of 
high-grade fruit and a small proportion of culls. Sucha 
tomato will meet the demands of the canners as well as 
those of the general market. The result will be a better 
keeping and a better shipping tomato. These are the 
ideals that the tomato breeder of to-day has in mind and 
toward which he is working. We predict that time will 
see their satisfactory realization. 
Tho the tomato is more generally grown in the 
United States than any other country, it is even here of 
comparatively recent use. A century ago the cherry, 
pear, and angular tomatoes were the only varieties 
known. The Apple and Tilden varieties were intro- 
duced in 1865. In 1870, Colonel George E. Waring Jr., 
of Newport, R. I., developed the Trophy variety, a large, 
early, smooth, fleshy, and well-flavored tomato that 
really marks an epoch in tomato history. As a result of 
Colonel Waring’s production, the cultivated tomato indus- 
try took on enthusiastic life and great impetus was given 
the art of breeding new varieties of tomatoes. 
The tomato is a very plastic organism and responds 
readily to changes in its environment. Hence the work of 
breeding has progressed with great rapidity. To-day 
there are about 200 varieties of tomatoes in cultivation 
and the fruit is daily gaining in popularity. There are 
estimated to be from 600,000 to one million acres of 
tomatoes now grown in this country. But because the 
tomato readily responds to a changed environment, new 
forms are constantly arising and replacing the old. Thus 
tomato varieties tend rapidly to “run out” or disappear. 
By nature in its tropical home the tomato is a peren- 
nial plant. As grown in the North it is of necessity an 
annual. But it is a noticeable characteristic of the 
tomato in our climate that if grown under favorable con- 
ditions it will continue bearing fruit until the frost checks 
