Newport weekly independent., 1902-07-25
VEGETABLES TO ORDER.
Wonderful Progress In Garden Truck
 Culture.

good quality of the vegetables sold
 ten years ago with what are in the
 market today, the difference would be
 striking, even to those who know
 little of such matters.
 Probably no more striking example
 of the progress made in the time
 mentioned can be found than is fur
 nished by the tomato. Here is an
 humble product of the garden, beloved
 by all men who have proper fond
 ness for good things, that has been so
 changed and improved of late as
 hardly to know itself. And it is
 strange, yet true, that the improve
 ment in the tomato has been due
 largely to the discovery of that pop
 ular ailment appendicitis.
 When the surgeons first established the fact that appendicitis and collie were not one and the same thing, and
 began to operate for the relief and
 cure of appendicitis there was much
 discussion as to the cause of the then
 dread affliction. The conviction then
 became general that it was due to the
 presence of foreign bodies in the ap-
 pendix, such as fruit and vegetable seeds, and, thereupon, the doom of the tomato was sounded because of
 the many seeds contained in it. There
 were large and small and highly col ored tomatoes in the market but all were full of seeds. Here then was 6 serious situation confronting the bic tomato growers as we'll as gardeners generally.
 There were then and there are still men who make speciality of tomato growing and who originate all the new varieties that are offered to the growers. These did not despair, but said if the public wouldn't eat to- matoes with seeds ill it, they would grow tomato without seeds. And they did. Not entirely without seeds, to be sure, but with so few seeds in them to justify the assertion of the originators that they had produced a seedless tomato; whereupon the to- mato was restored to public favor.
 But that was not the only change made in the tomato Without the | great number of seeds they were | found to be far sweeter in flavor. This flavor was retained, while the size and solidity were increased, until | today there are tomatoes running up to six inches in diameter, from two to four pounds each in weight, that are as solid as piece of meat, defy all sorts of weather, that last from first picking until the coming of frost md of which as high as twenty tons nave been taken from single acre. The tomato specialists are justly proud of their accomplishment.
 But Improvement in other directions lave been just as great and often without such good reason. Many ,ardners objected to the old way of growing lima beans. They didn't want to go to the expense of cutting poles and sticking them in the ground or the beans to run up on, and it took he beans long while to mature any, way; so they turned out bush lima t 'ean, which grows only two feet high, l leeds no support and upon which the { 'eans mature quickly and in great t quantities. While they were at it I hey originated new lot of string I 'eans which were ready for the mar ,et all of two weeks earlier than the I sual kinds, which were really string I ess and so tender they snapped when ( lot picked carefully. That was an ther big stride.
 Then the men who know more than nost folks could dream about straw erries, thought they would see what S hey could do. First they increased he size of the berries until they had \ hown specimens almost as big as C ne's fist with whole fields averaging C dozen to full quart measure. Then hey improved the flavor of the big r erries until they were as sweet as f he wild berry. After that, varieties t 7ere introduced that were earlier q han others which extended the sea- r on for this fruit Not satisfied with I hat, progressive Frenchman brought r ourth a strawberry that is a marvel c I it's way, for it produces three crops s I a year and is practically everhear- q