The Nashville globe. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1906-193?, 1917-09-07
Nashville, Tenn. Sept. Z, II.
THE TOMATO.

One of the things for which August,
already of happy memory. is to be
praised is the tomato. Nature pro-
duces many luscious fruits. but none
more luscious or more altogether sat
isfying than the tomato Why it is
that poets have not arisen to chant
its virtues and its modest cOmeliness
is one of the uneXplainable mysteries.
Perhaps it has been overlooked by fol
lowers of the muse because it is so
common, but even so great a poet as
James Russell Lowell, it will be re-
membered, wrote poem to the dande
lion, that dear common flower" as
he called it. But if the tomato has
failed to invoke the muse, it does not
fail to provoke, with each recurring
August, rhapsodical tributes to its
toothsome qualities from a multitude
of devotees.
The man, woman or child who does
not like the tomato is yet to be dis
covered. Liking for it, or taste for
it, is not one that needs to be &C.
quired, or cultivated, but seems to be
instructive. No ones appetite for the
tomato ever appears to be satiated
It's supereXcellencies are a constant
temptation to the use of eXtravagant
language. 1t is one of the inimitable
products of nature, a thing unique,
unlike any other of Natures works.
1t has a flavor and a quality all its
own 1t has borrowed from the
spectrum the most brilliant of scar.
let's for its coloring. Its soft, round
ed corves are the perfection of sym
metry. Its juices are as ambrOsia
the food of the god, delectable. 1t is
palatable, if so inexpensive a wore
is permissible in this Connection, in Sc
many ways as to be bewildering. Pack
ed in cans, it has become a house
hold necessity and an important ar
ticle of commerce. 1t is transformed
into the most delicious of preserves
spiced and otherwise, by the fine ar
of the housewife. In its green anC
unripe state it is the foundation o
the most superb pickles.
In, WOW iC do
lightful as when freshly plucked from
the vine, it is eaten in its raw STATE
in the garden, with just bit of sal
upon it for seasoning. All, that il
when words cannot be found to in
terpret human emotion! There arr
times when languages wholly in
adequate to express the bills!
which surges within the hu
nina breast, and that is one Of them!
Withal, Nature not alone has beer
generous in her bestowal of grace
upon this lowly but loveliest of fruits
but she has been more than generous
If, indeed she has not been prodiga
i'm the abundance with which she
lavishes thetomato upon us. No gar
den plant is more easily grown than
the tomato, and none yields greater
returns. No householder with even
so little a plot as six square feet OF
ground need be without his tomato
patch. The tomato thrives under thu
most adverse conditions, defying neg
lect, inhospitable soil, drouth ant
heat. Only to frost and cold is /
sensitive. And how responsive 1t i
to kindly care. 1t is brought int
bearing in a little more than ninet,
days. 1t is for the tables of the wea
thy as it is for those of the poor, an
in no home, however mean or pals
tial, does it cease to be both commo
and a thing luxurious.
Praise be, then, to the adventure
who discovered, not so long ago, tina
the tomato was edible. What mad tn
world missed without such venture
some spirits!