Tomato notes . 



Harry Hornbuckles ' s new i'ce company should be off to a good start . We all found that 6,000 lbs. of 

 ice per car was extremely beneficial to our tomato plants. The Express Company in its wisdom said 

 no ice. The heat was turned on at the meeting in Philadelphia, held January 4-th, when some fifty 

 men from the Government, from the railroads, from the Express Company, and from the tomato industry 

 smoked out the subject and came to an agreement. "We can for $7.50 per car have ice, which, of course, 

 means better plants and better plants in turn mean more tomatoes. 



The big New Jersey Tomato Meeting was held in Convention Hall January 5th, with about 1000 growers 

 present. Edward Faulkner, famed author of "Plowman's Folly" was the drawing card. 348 growers made 

 the New Jersey Ten-Ton club for 194-3. Charles Nissley the club's god-father, was especially pleased 

 for it was the driest season in 51 years in New Jersey. Mr. Sherman Perkins of Wrightstown, N.J. a 

 Campbell contractor with Rutgers won the Quantity Prize with a yield of 23.54- tons per acre on 10 

 acres. Mr. Milton S.Roberts of Englishtown, N. J. a Stokes contractor won the Quality Prize with an 

 average U. S. Grade of 90% No. 1 and 10% No . 2 . No culls. Mr. Roberts produced 16 tons per acre on 

 8 acres. Sincere congratulations to both of you'. 



Recent experiments in New Jersey and in Georgia indicate that tomato seed treatment in the future may 

 be done by dusting and not by solution. Dr. Davis of New Brunswick and Mr. Gunn of Tifton are at 

 work on the details. This is encouraging news. 



Again Stokes Tomato Juice reports "Present" on the war front. This time our friend Jules Laurent, 

 thrice wounded in Africa and Sicily sends us a V-Mail greeting and says that Vincentown's best was 

 right behind the Front Line. We'll do our best to keep it coning, Jules. 



Reports from our Winter Proving Ground at Homestead, Florida, tell of a narrow escape from the last 

 freeze. Generally speaking the news is good. Maturities will be late February. M 12 and M 15 are 

 good number to remember. They alone are worth the price of admission — a pass from Charles Schaffer, 

 our superintendant . 



There is not a full supply of tomato seed for crop 194-4 • If you have not fully covered your require- 

 ments act promptly.. We are averaging about 75% on our deliveries. Other growers are approximating that. 



With today's market tomatoes selling at $4.00 and $5-00 per lug box, and with cannery tomatoes probably 

 headed for $27.00 per ton average, the prospects are that again this will be the Vegetable of the Year 

 for 194-4- 



Garden State, the new Campbell Soup Company introduction, formerly called No. 37, has won the approval 

 of many cannery tomato growers. This tomato is the product of Dr. D. R. Porter, Geneticist and results 

 from crosses involving Pritchard, Marvel and Pink Topper. Yield, Season and quality tests have been 

 conducted for the past four years. Garden State has been developed as an earlier maturing variety and 

 should largely be studied from that standpoint. In a number of tests it has been proven slightly larger 

 and has yielded heavier than Rutgers. 



In 1636, the Tomato carried "a rank and stinking savour" 



I am indebted to Mr. J. Horace McFarland for sending me the October 1942 issue of the Journal of the 

 Royal Horticultural Society, which contained an article "The Tomato As a National Fruit" by Mr. Arthur 

 Hoare, Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries. 



"A search of the horticultural literature published a century ago brings a little reward in the shape 

 of references to the Tomato as a cultivated crop for human consumption. There is not a single refer- 

 ence to the Tomato in the volume of the Gardeners' Chronicle for the year 1845 in the writer's possession, 

 and none of the books of this period concerned with vegetable growing and fruit culture refers to the 

 Tomato as a salad fruit. When mentioned at all it is in reference to its use as an ingredient in pickles, 

 sauces and soups. 



"The tardy recognition in Britain of a fruit which was destined in the end to play such an inportant part 

 in our national life is perhaps not difficult to understand. For the British public has received scant 

 encouragement to take any interest in this plant from the New World, the Potato's fellow migrant, which 

 JOHN GERARDE (1) had referred to in such scathing terns: "..the whole plant, "write GERARDE in The 

 Herball or Generall Historie of Plantes (1636 edition), "is of a rank and stinking savour." On the sub- 

 ject of its uses by what we must suppose GERARDE regarded as the less sophisticated of the hunan race 

 he wrote: "In spaine and those hot Regions they use to eate the Apples boiled with pepper, salt and 

 oyle; but they yield very little nourishment to the body, and the sme naught and corrupt. 



"Likewise , they eate the Apples with oyle, vinegre and pepper mixed together for sauce to their meat, 

 even as we in these cold countries use mustard." 



"Whether GERARD'S opinion of the Love Apple, as it was then generally called, definitely influenced 

 public opinion in Britain it is difficult to say, but we do know that for the next two hundred years 

 the possibilities of the Tomato as an edible fruit, and not just an ingredient of soups and pickles, 

 received little attention. 



"The thirteenth edition of PHILIP MILLER'S The Gardeners' Kalendar, published in 1762, goes no further 

 with the subject than the statement - "The Tomatoes for soups and the capsicums for pickling which 

 have been raised on hot beds should be transplanted to the places where they are designed to remain.... 

 The Tomato should be near a wall, pale, hedge or espalier, to which the plants when grown must be 

 fastened to support them". 



"JOHN ROGERS in The Vegetable Cultivator (1843) remarks apropos of the "Love Apple": "There is but 

 variety (the old original red) worth cultivating; the yellow is not much noticed, and the Cherry and 

 Pear-shaped, of French extraction, are of little worth". 



