4^8 Tomato — Its Cultivation and Uses. 
We often hear it said that a relish for this vegetable is an ac- 
quired one; scarcely any person at first, liking it, but eventually 
becoming very fond of it. It has, indeed, within a few years 
come into very general use, and is considered a particularly healthy 
article. A learned medical professor in the west pronounces the 
tomato, a very wholesome food in various w^ays, and advises to 
the daily use of it. He says that it is very salutary in dyspepsy, and 
indigestion; and is a good antidote to bilious disorders, to which 
persons are liable in going from a northern to a warmer climate. 
He recommends the use of it also in diarrhoea, and thinks it pre- 
ferable to calomel. 
The tomato is a tender, herbaceous plant, of rank growth, but 
weak, fceted, and glutinous. The leaves resemble those of the 
potato but the flowers are yellow and arranged in large divided 
branches. The fruit is of a light yellow, and a bright red color, 
pendulous, and formed like the large squash-shaped pepper. 
There are smaller varieties, one pear-shaped, both red and yellow, 
and a small round plum-shaped variety, also red and yellow. These 
are eaten and relished by many, from the hand. The red are best 
for cooking; the yellow for slicing, like cucumbers, seasoned with 
pepper, salt and vinegar, and eaten raw. 
The seeds should be sown in the early part of March, in a 
slight hot-bed, and the plants set out in the open ground early in 
May. In private gardens it will be necessary to plant them near 
a fence, or to provide trelices for them to be trained to, in the 
same manner as for Nasturtians; they will, however, do very well 
if planted out four feet distant from each other every way. But a 
nice way to keep the plant erect, and the fruit from the ground, 
is to drive down four stakes, so as to make a square, say two feet 
each way, around the plant, and then wrap three or four wisps 
of straw around the stakes. These will keep the vines from fall- 
ing, and expose the fruit nicely to the sun for ripening. They 
will bear till frost. 
Its uses. — There is, perhaps, no fruit or vegetable, now culti- 
vated that can be converted into so many palatable dishes as the 
tomato; and to aid our female readers we subjoin several recipes, 
