The Baltimore County union., 1885-10-03
History of the Tomato.

In an article upon "Kitchen Garden
Esculents of American Origin" in the
american Naturalist, DIR. E. L. Sturte-
want has some interesting remarks upon
the tomato, from which we make the
following extracts:
"Tomatoes were eaten by the Nahua
tribes, and were called (singly) t0matl
| (plural tOmame.") The tomato was
described by various European botanists
of the sixteenth century," x x
1t seems to have been grown in Euio-
pean gardens as fruit, from its first
introduction, judging from the refer
ences in Dodonaus and Gerard; but
Parkinson, 1866, speaks of it as grown
in England for ornament and curiosity
only. In Italy, Chateauvieux, 1872,
mentions its cultivation on large scale
for the Naples and Rome market. 1t
is probable that its use was at first more
general among southern nations, as we
find that the Anglo-Saxon race was the
last to receive it into the kitchen garden.
Thus, in 1774, Long describes the fruit
well, and mentions its frequent use in
soups and sauces, and adds that it is
likewise fried and served up with eggs.
In 1878 Marie and Abercrombie men
tion five varieties as known, two of
which are described as scentless and
burnet-leaved, and add that they are
eaten by the Spaniards and Portuguese
in particular, and are in high esteem.
"In the United States its introduc-
ton preceded by many years its use as
we at present know it. 1t is said to
have reached Philadelphia from St.
Domingo in 1898, but not to have been
sold in the markets until 1920. 1t was
used as an article of food in New Or
leans in 1872. The first notice of it in
American gardens was apparently by
Jefferson, who notes it in Virginia gar
dens in 1881. 1t was introduced into
Salem, Mass, about 1902, by an Italian,
but he found it difficult to persuade
people even to taste the fruit. Among
American writers on gardening, Nc
Mahon, 1906, mentions the tomato, but
no varieties, as Sin much esteem for
culinary purposes Gardiner and Hep
burn, 1913, say, Make excellent
pickles. Fessenden, 1928, quotes from
Loundon only; Bridgeman, 1892, says,
Much cultivated for its fruits in soups
and sauces. They were first grown in
western New York in 1926, the seed
from Virginia, and in 1890 were not
produced by the vegetable gardeners
about Albany; yet directions for culti-
waiting this fruit appeared in Thorburn's
Gardeners Kalendar, ed edit, New
York, 1917. Buist writes that as an es-
culent plant in 1S2S-2o the tomato was
almost detested, yet in ten years more
egxtrrta eegxtrrtacNra NrariAtTolfAJl! and. .nanaceaL was
Secretary of the Connecticut Board OF
Agriculture, writes me that we raised
our first tomates about 1892, only as
curiosity, made no use of them, though
we had heard that the French ate them.
They were called love apples. d: J.
Browne, 1894, describes six varieties,
and says: 'The tomato until within the
last twenty years was almost wholly ur-
known in this country as an esculent
vegetable In 1885 they were sold by
the dozen in Quincy Market, Boston.
In the Maine Farmer, October 10, 1885,
in an editorial on tomatoes, they are
said to be cultivated in gardens in
Maine, and to be "a useful article OF
diet, and should be found on every
mans table, In local lecture in one
of the Western colleges about this time,
DIR. Bennett refers to the tomato or
Jerusalem apple as being found in the
markets in great abundance, and in the
NezO York Farmer of this period one
person is mentioned as having planted
large quantity for the purpose of max
ing sauce. In 1874 the tomato was now
acquiring that popularity which makes
it SO indispensable at present, writes K.
Manning" From this it appears that
"the esculent use of the tomato IN
America does not antedate the present
century, and only became general about
1886 to IS4o."