1892 
THE  RURAL  NEW-YORKER. 
5i 
Fig.  35. 
The  Origin  of  the  Peach  Tomato. 
Mr.  N.  Hallock.  one  of  the  first  to  raise  the  Peach 
Tomato  on  Long  Island,  informed  us  that  he  procured 
his  seed  from  Landreth  &  Sons,  of  Philadelphia,  Pa. 
Thereupon  we  wrote  to  that  firm,  and  the  following  is 
the  reply  : 
“The  Peach  Tomato  we  received  about  1884  from 
Mr.  W.  A.  Strother,  Lynchburg,  Va.  It  was  sent  to 
us  as  a  curiosity  without  a  name.  We  catalogued  it  for 
two  or  three  years  before  any  other  seed  firm  took  hold 
of  it.  It  is  very 
distinct  among  to¬ 
matoes  ;  valuable 
for  preserving  en¬ 
tire,  and  it  was  on 
two  occasions  put 
up  by  a  tomato 
canner  to  the  ex¬ 
tent  of  2.000  or 
3,000  bushels. 
LANDRETII  &  SON8.” 
We  then  wrote 
t  o  Mr.  Strother, 
and  received  the 
following  reply  : 
“  The  Peach  To¬ 
mato  is  evidently 
a ‘sport.’  The  first 
Seeds  I  ever  had  were  given  me  by  a  friend  who  did  not 
recollect  how  he  got  them.  He  showed  me  some  of  the 
ripe  fruit  as  a  curiosity,  and  gave  me  the  seeds  and  I 
cultivated  the  variety  several  years  and  then  aban¬ 
doned  it.  I  regret  that  I  cannot  give  you  any  definite 
information  as  to  its  origin-.  w.  a.  strother.” 
It  was  thought  by  one  of  our  correspondents  that  the 
Peach  Tomato  originated  in  France.  The  following  is  a 
reply  to  The  Rural’s  inquiry  of  Messrs.  Vilmorin  &  Co. : 
“  As  far  as  known  to  us  the  Peach  Tomato  was  for  the 
first  time  sent  out  by  a  firm  in  the  United.  States. 
What  may  possibly  have  led  to  the  supposition  that  it 
is  of  European  origin  is  the  fact  that  the  first  crimson 
tomato  we  have  heard  of  has  been  raised  near  Paris. 
It  was  called  “  Belle  DeLeuville,”  and  in  shape 
resembled  the  old  large  red  tomato,  i.  e.,  it  was 
rather  flat,  but  much  less  ribbed.  Its  color  was  its  im¬ 
portant  feature,  being  crimson,  becoming  almost  violet 
when  ripe.  Now,  whether  the  Peach  Tomato  has  some 
relation  with  this 
variety  we  cannot 
say,  but  it  is  quite 
possible  that  it 
may  have  come 
more  or  less 
directly  from  this 
first  crimson 
fruited  “  Belle  De¬ 
Leuville,”  the 
more  so  as  the  lat¬ 
ter  has  been  cat¬ 
alogued  by  o  u  r 
firm  from  1874, and 
has  been  supplied 
by  us  repeatedly 
for  many  years  to  Fig.  39. 
the  leading  seed 
houses  in  America,  hence  it  isn’t  unlikely  they  may 
have  used  it  for  this  purpose. 
Paris,  Dec.  23,  1891.  vilmorin-andrieux  «t  co.” 
R.  N.-Y’s  Varieties  of  Tomatoes. 
We  received  the  following  varieties  of  tomatoes  from 
The  Rural  New-Yorker:  Long  Keeper,  Goff’s  Hybrid, 
selection  of  ’90,  White  Sport  of  Peach.  The  Long 
Keeper  is  very  productive  ;  the  fruit  is  medium  in  size, 
very  smooth  and  regular.  Good.  I  have  not  tried  its 
keeping  qualities.  White  Sport  of  the  Peach :  the 
character  of  this  variety  is  very  much  like  that  of  the 
ordinary  Peach  Tomato,  but  it  is  more  prolific.  The 
fruit  is  uniformly  yellow,  no  red  ones  having  appeared 
on  our  plants  ;  in  other  respects  it  is  the  same  as  the 
original.  l.  H-  bailey. 
Cornell  University  Experiment  Station. 
[Prof.  Bailey’s  report  of  the  Goff's  Hybrid  after  sev¬ 
eral  years’  selection  at  the  Rural  Grounds,  will  be  found 
under  What  Others  Say,  page  54. — Eos.] 
Faults  of  the  “400”  Tomato. 
The  “400”  Tomato  showed,  with  me,  another  fault 
in  addition  to  those  named  by  The  R.  N.-Y.  of  1891,  on 
page  876,  viz. ,  a  skin  too  tender  for  ordinary  field  cul¬ 
ture.  The  fruit  was  borne  to  the  ground  by  its  great 
weight  and  much  of  it  rotted  away  on  the  lower  side 
before  it  had  ripened.  In  the  latter  part  of  the  season 
shallow,  black  pits,  from  a  quarter  to  a  half  inch  in 
diameter,  appeared  on  the  skin,  rendering  the  fruit 
unsalable  and  eventually  causing  decay.  The  fruit  at 
all  stages  of  growth  was  affected  alike.  Potomac 
Tomatoes  12  feet  away  were  spotted,  but  not  so  badly. 
None  of  the  other  varieties  in  the  field  were  so  affected. 
At  the  time  of  the  Western  New  York  Fair,  I  could 
not  find  a  single  perfect  specimen  of  the  “400”  on  a 
row  of  50  plants.  The  first  prize  for  the  12  best  toma¬ 
toes  (Ignotum)  and  also  for  the  best  collection  of 
tomatoes  was  awarded  to  fruit  from  the  same  field, 
grown  under  similar  conditions.  As  a  market  tomato 
I  consider  the  “400”  as  useless  as  Mr.  McAllister’s 
“  Four  Hundred.”  The  skin  is  too  delicate  and  there 
are  too  many  “scallops.”  o*  A.,  JR. 
[We  have  received  many  favorable  reports  of  the 
Fig.  36. 
m  t 
m 
m 
m 
Fig.  38. 
PEACH  HYBRIDS. 
Fig.  40. 
Fig  37. 
Fig.  42. 
PEACH  HYBRIDS.  Half  Sections.  See  page  51. 
“400.”  or  Ponderosa.  The  above  is  one  of  the  few 
unfavorable  ones. — Eds.] 
The  Culture  of  Tomatoes. 
Most  of  the  farmers  in  the  vicinity  of  the  Rural 
Grounds  engage  in  market  gardening — some  more, 
some  less — the  chief  markets  being  New  York,  15  miles 
distant  by  dirt  road,  and  Paterson.  N.  J.,  about  seven 
miles  away.  The  main  crops  raised  ari  sweet  corn, 
Lima  beans,  potatoes,  tomatoes  and  melons.  There 
seems  to  be  little  tfiat  is  new  or  peculiar  in  their 
methods  of  tomato  raising.  The  whole  story  may  be 
told  as  follows : 
Land  is  chosen  that,  the  year  previous,  was  in  melons, 
potatoes  or  any  other  hoed  crop.  It  is  plowed  and  har¬ 
rowed  as  for  potatoes,  and  marked  off  for  the  plants 
to  be  set  3>£  feet  each  way.  Pig  manure  is  preferred, 
a  shovelful  being  incorporated  with  the  soil  of  each 
hill.  Broadcasting  is  not  usually  favored,  and  fertil¬ 
izers  are  used  only  where  there  is  no  home-made  ma¬ 
nure.  The  seed  is  sown  in  a  hot-bed  in  middle  or  late 
March,  and  the 
plants  are  trans¬ 
planted  to  a  cold- 
frame  when  three 
or  f  o  u  r  inches 
tall.  They  are 
lifted  out  of  the 
cold-frame  for  the 
field  with  a  ball  of 
soil  to  each  plant, 
which  is  easily 
held  together  by 
the  many  fibrous 
r  o  o  t  s  of  trans- 
planted  plants. 
Deep  planting  is 
preferred.  When 
the  plants  are 
leggy,  they  are  set  diagonally  in  the  soil,  the  top  being 
held  upright  by  a  handful  of  soil.  As  a  rule,  the 
farmers  do  not  bother  to  wrap  about  the  stem  a  piece 
of  paper  as  protection  against  the  cut-worm.  In 
answer  to  our  question,  one  of  the  leading  market 
gardeners  replied :  “I  can  set  three  plants  without 
wrapping  to  one  with  wrapping.  After  a  few  days 
we  go  over  the  field  and  replace  those  destroyed  by 
the  cut- worm.”  The  after  culture  is  merely  to  keep 
the  soil  mellow  and  free  of  weeds  until  the  growth  of 
the  vines  prevents. 
Fertilizers  for  Early  Tomatoes. 
The  growing  of  early  tomatoes  is  a  considerable  in¬ 
dustry  in  New  Jersey.  In  Camden,  Gloucester,  Bur¬ 
lington  and  Cumberland  Counties  large  areas  are  de¬ 
voted  to  the  crop.  The  profits  are,  to  a  large  extent, 
measured  by  the  earliness  of  the  variety.  Those  mar¬ 
keted  after  July  are  obliged  to  meet  the  competition  of 
the  average  grower  and  hence  prices  are  also  average  ; 
strong  efforts  are 
therefore  made  to 
seeure  earliness, 
and  within  the 
past  few  years 
great  progress  has 
been  made, though 
chiefly  along  the 
line  of  the  develop¬ 
ment  and  care  of 
the  plant  before  it 
is  set  in  the  field. 
A  great  deal  has 
also  been  learned 
about  the  manage¬ 
ment  of  the  soil, 
Fig.  41.  and  care  of  the 
•  crop  in  the  field. 
Many  difficulties  have  been  met,  however,  in  manuring 
the  crop,  for  while  it  is  a  comparatively  easy  matter 
by  the  careful  selection  of  manures  to  largely  increase 
the  yield,  the  increase  is  frequently  at  the  expense  of 
maturity,  thus  defeating  the  end  in  view.  Even  yard 
manure,  that  old  standby,  seems  to  cause  a  tendency 
to  develop  vine  at  the  expense  of  early  fruit. 
My  experience  began  in  1889,  when  experiments 
were  planned  here  at  the  New  Jersey  Experiment 
Station  to  study  this  point.  The  special  fertilizer 
selected  for  this  purpose  was  nitrate  of  soda,  in  the 
belief  that  it  would  have  a  tendency  to  promote  early 
growth,  though  fully  aware  that  it  was  not  a  complete 
plant  food  and  therefore  not  likely  to  give  profitable 
returns  on  light  land  or  upon  soils  that  had  not  been 
liberally  manured  for  previous  crops.  This,  however, 
did  not  detract  from  the  value  of  the  experiment,  since 
the  prime  conditions,  other  than  manure,  included  a 
deep,  warm  soil,  in  a  good  state  of  fertility.  Never¬ 
theless,  the  experiment  was  so  planned  as  to  admit  of 
a  study  of  its  use  in  connection  with  the  mineral  ele¬ 
ments,  and  also  of  the  comparative  effect  of  different 
quantities  and  different  methods  of  application.  The 
most  favorable  results  were  secured.  It  was  clearly 
shown  that  nitrate  of  soda  under  certain  conditions  of 
quantity  and  method  of  application,  was  especially 
valuable,  not  only  in  increasing  the  yield  in  a  surpris¬ 
ing  manner,  but  in  maintaining  a  proportionate  matur¬ 
ity,  and  also  in  thus  adding  largely  to  the  profits  of  the 
crop. 
Experiments  were  also  carried  out  in  1890  upon  land 
of  a  similar  character.  In  that  year  the  season  was 
remarkably  favorable,  since  on  the  unmanured  land 
over  3[^  tons  of  fruit  per  acre  were  marketed  previous 
