Mower County transcript. [volume] (Lansing, Minn.) 1868-1915, 1886-02-17
History of the Tomato.

In an article upon ''Kitchen Garden
Esculents of American Origin" in the
american Naturalist, DR.. E. L. Sturte-
want has some interesting remarks up
on the tomato, from which we make
the following extracts: tomatoes were
eaten by the Nahua tribes, and were
called (singly) tomaan (pluraD to-
1aa'e@.' - The tomato "was described
by various European botanists of the
sixteenth century. 1t seems to
have been grown in European gardens
as fruit, from its first Introduction,
judging from the references in Dodo-
naus and Gerard; but Parkinson, 1856,
speaks of it as grown in England for
ornament and curiosity only. In Italy,
Chateauvieux, 1912, mentions its cult
walton on large scale for the Naples
and Rome market. 1t is probable that
it's use was at first more general among
southern nations, as we find that the
Anglo-Saxon race was the last to re-
ceiVe it into the kitchen garden. Thus,
in 1774, Long describes the fruit we'll,
and mentions its frequent use in soups
and sauces, and adds that it is likewise
fried and served up with eggs. In 1778
Marie and Abereromble mention five
varieties as known, two of which are
leaved, and add that they are eaten by
the Spaniards ord Portu guese in par
ticular, and are in high esteem.
lin the United States it's introduction
preceded by many years its use as we
at present know it. 1t is said to have
reached Philadelphia from St. Domin-
go in 1898, but not to have sold in the
markets until 1929. It was used as an
article of food in New Orleans in 1912.
The first notice of it in American gar
dens was apparently by Jefferson, who
notes it in Virginia gardens 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
writer's on gardening, Mcmahon,
1902, mentions the tomato, but no
varieties, as in much esteem for culin-
airy purposes; Gardiner and Hepburn,
1918, say, Make excellent pickles.;
Fessenden, 1928, quotes from Loudon
only; Bridgeman, 1882, says, Much
cultivated for its fruits in soups and
sauces. They were first grown in
western New York in 1925, the seed
from Virginia, and in 1880 were not
produced by the vegetable gardeners
about Albany; yet directions for cult
waiting this fruit appeared in Thor
burns Gardeners Kalendar, I'd edit,
New York, 2817. BUST writes that as
an esculent plant in 1828-29 The tomato
was almost detested, yet in ten years
more every variety of pill and panacea
was extract of tomato Mr.. T. S.
Gold, Secretary of the Connecticut
Board of Agriculture, writes me that
we raised our first tomatoes about
1882, only as a curiosity, made no use
of them, though we had heard that the
French ate them. They were called
love apples D. J. Browne, 1884, de-
scribes six varieties, and says: The
tomato until within the last twenty
years was almost wholly unknown in
this country as an esculent vegetable
In 1885 they were sold by the dozen in
Quincy Market, Boston. In the Maine
Farmer, October Is, 1885, in an editor
ial on tomatoes, they are said to be cul-
tivated in gardens in Maine, and to be
"a useful article of diet, and should be
found on every man s table, In a To-
cal lecture in one of the Western COL
leges about this time, DR.. Bennett re-
fers to the tomato or Jerusalem apple
as being found in the markets in great
abundance, and in the New York
Farmer of this period one person is
mentioned as having planted large
quantity for the purpose of making
sauce. In 1874 the tomato was now
acquiring that popularity which mades
it so indispensable at present, writes
r. 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 1885 to 1870"
The BANK OF England has . floating
balance of t1O0, OO0, 600, and the bank
notes, If stretched together end to end,
would reach distance Of IL, $40 miles.
The Egyptian war viii use up few