Tomato Culture: A Practical Treatise on the Tomato Part 1

Tomato Culture: A Practical Treatise on the Tomato.

by William Warner Tracy.

PREFACE

This little book has been written in fulfilment of a promise made many years ago. Again and again I have undertaken the work, only to lay it aside because I felt the need of greater experience and wider knowledge.

I do not now feel that this deficiency has been by any means fully supplied, but in some directions it has been removed through the kindness of Dr. F. H. Chittenden of the Bureau of Entomology, who wrote the chapter on insect enemies, and of W. A. Orton of the Bureau of Plant Industry, United States Department of Agriculture, who wrote the chapter on diseases of tomatoes.

I have made free use of, without special credit, and am largely indebted to, the writings of Doctor Sturtevant and Professor Goff, Professor Munson of Maine, Professor Halsted of New Jersey, Professor Corbett of Was.h.i.+ngton, Professor Rolfs of Florida, Professor Bailey of New York, Professor Green of Ohio, and many others. I have also found a vast amount of valuable information in the agricultural press of this country in general. I am also indebted to L. B. Coulter and Prof. W. G. Johnson for many photographs. My thanks are also due B. F. Williamson, who made the excellent drawings for this book under Professor Johnson's direction.

Tomatoes are among the most generally used and popular vegetables. They are grown not only in gardens, but in large areas in every state from Maine to California and Was.h.i.+ngton to Florida, and under very different conditions of climate, soil and cultural facilities, as well as of requirements as to character of fruit. The methods which will give the best results under one set of conditions are entirely unsuited to others.

I have tried to give the nature and requirements of the plant and the effect of conditions as seen in my own experience, a knowledge of which may enable the reader to follow the methods most suited to his own conditions and requirements, rather than to recommend the exact methods which have given me the best results.

WILL W. TRACY.

_Was.h.i.+ngton, April, 1907._

TOMATO CULTURE

CHAPTER I

Botany of the Tomato

=The common tomato= of our gardens belongs to the natural order _Solanaceae_ and the genus _Lycopersic.u.m_. The name from _lykos_, a wolf, and _persica_, a peach, is given it because of the supposed aphrodisiacal qualities, and the beauty of the fruit. The genus comprises a few species of South American annual or short-lived perennial, herbaceous, rank-smelling plants in which the many branches are spreading, proc.u.mbent, or feebly ascendent and commonly 2 to 6 feet in length, though under some conditions, particularly in the South and in California, they grow much longer. They are covered with resinous viscid secretions and are round, soft, brittle and hairy, when young, but become furrowed, angular, hard and almost woody with enlarged joints, when old. The leaves are irregularly alternate, 5 to 15 inches long, petioled, odd pinnate, with seven to nine short-stemmed leaflets, often with much smaller and stemless ones between them. The larger leaflets are sometimes entire, but more generally notched, cut, or even divided, particularly at the base.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 2--TOMATO FLOWERS ENLARGED ABOUT 2-1/2 TIMES.

SECTION OF FLOWER SHOWN AT RIGHT (Drawn from a photograph by courtesy of Prof. L. C. Corbett)]

=The flowers= are pendant and borne in more or less branched cl.u.s.ters, located on the stem on the opposite side and usually a little below the leaves; the first cl.u.s.ter on the sixth to twelfth internode from the ground, with one on each second to sixth succeeding one. The flowers (Fig. 2) are small, consisting of a yellow, deeply five-cleft, wheel-shaped corolla, with a very short tube and broadly lanceolate, recurving petals. The calyx consists of five long linear or lanceolate sepals, which are shorter than the petals at first, but are persistent, and increase in size as the fruits mature. The stamens, five in number, are borne on the throat of the corolla, and consist of long, large anthers, borne on short filaments, loosely joined into a tube and opening by a longitudinal slit on the inside, and this is the chief botanical distinction between this genus and _Solanum_ to which the potato, pepper, night shade and tobacco belong. The anthers in the latter genus open at the tip only. The two genera, however, are closely related and plants belonging to them are readily united by grafting. The Physalis, Husk tomato or Ground cherry is quite distinct, botanically.

The pistils of the true tomato are short at first, but the style elongates so as to push the capitate stigma through the tube formed by the anthers, this usually occurring before the anthers open for the discharge of the pollen. The fruit is a two to many-celled berry with central fleshy placenta and many small kidney-shaped seeds which are densely covered with short, stiff hairs, as seen in Figs. 3 and 4.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 3--TWO-CELLED TOMATO]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 4--THREE-CELLED TOMATO]

It is comparatively easy to define the genus with which the tomato should be cla.s.sed botanically, but it is by no means so easy to cla.s.sify our cultivated varieties into botanical species. We have in cultivation varieties which are known to have originated in gardens and from the same parentage, but which differ from each other so much in habit of growth, character of leaf and fruit and other respects, that if they had been found growing wild they would unhesitatingly be p.r.o.nounced different species, and botanists are not agreed as to how our many and very different garden varieties should be cla.s.sified botanically. Some contend that all of our cultivated sorts are varieties of but two distinct species, while others think they have originated from several.

=Cla.s.sification.=--The author suggests the following cla.s.sification, differing somewhat from that sometimes given, as he believes that the large, deep-sutured fruit of our cultivated varieties and the distinct pear-shaped sorts come from original species rather than from variations of _Lycopersic.u.m cerasiforme_:

=Currant tomato, Grape tomato, German or Raisin tomato= (_Lycopersic.u.m pimpinellifolium_, _L. racemiforme_) (Fig. 5).--Universally regarded as a distinct species. Plant strong, growing with many long, slender, weak branches which are not so hairy, viscid, or ill-smelling, and never become so hard or woody as those of the other species. The numerous leaves are very bright green in color, leaflets small, nearly entire, with many small stemless ones between the others. Fruit produced continuously and in great quant.i.ty on long racemes like those of the currant, though they are often branched. They continue to elongate and blossom until the fruit at the upper end is fully ripened. Fruit small, less than 1/2 inch in diameter, spherical, smooth and of a particularly bright, beautiful red color which contrasts well with the bright green leaves, and this abundance of beautifully colored and gracefully poised fruit makes the plant worthy of more general cultivation as an ornament, though the fruit is of little value for culinary use. This species, when pure, has not varied under cultivation, but it readily crosses with other species and with our garden varieties, and many of these owe their bright red color to the influence of crosses with the above species.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 5--CURRANT TOMATO AND CHARACTERISTIC Cl.u.s.tERS]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 6--RED CHERRY TOMATO]

=Cherry tomato= (_L. cerasiforme_) (Fig. 6).--Plant vigorous, with stout branches which are distinctly trailing in habit. Leaves flat or but slightly curled. Fruit very abundant, borne in short, branched cl.u.s.ters, globular, perfectly smooth, with no apparent sutures. From 1/2 to 3/4 inch in diameter and either red or yellow in color, two-celled with numerous comparatively small, kidney-shaped seeds. Many of our garden varieties show evidence of crosses with this species, and by many it is regarded as the original wild form of all of our cultivated sorts.

These, when they escape from cultivation and become wild plants, as they often do, from New Jersey southward, produce fruit which, in many respects, resembles that of this species in size and form; but they are generally more flattened, globe-shaped, with more or less distinct sutures on the upper side, and I have never seen any fruit of these wild plants which could not be readily distinguished from that of the true Cherry tomato.

Prof. P. H. Rolfs, Director of the Florida experiment station, reports that among the millions of volunteer, or wild, tomatoes he has seen growing in the abandoned tomato fields in Florida, he has never seen a plant with fruit which could not be easily distinguished from that of the true Cherry tomato. Again, one can, by selection and cultivation, easily develop from these wild forms plants producing fruit as large and often practically identical with that of our cultivated varieties, while I have given a true stock of Cherry tomato most careful cultivation on the best of soil for 20 consecutive generations without any increase in size or change in character of the fruit.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 7--PEAR-SHAPED TOMATO]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 8--YELLOW PLUM TOMATO, SHOWING MOST USUAL FORM OF Cl.u.s.tER]

=Pear (not Plum) tomato= (_L. pyriforme_) (Fig. 7).--Plant exceptionally vigorous, with comparatively few long, stout stems inclined to ascend.

Leaves numerous, broad, flat, with a distinct bluish-green color noticeable, even in the cotyledons. Fruit abundant, borne in short branched or straight cl.u.s.ters of five to ten fruits. It is perfectly smooth, without sutures, and of the shape of a long, slender-necked pear, not over an inch in transverse by 1-1/2 inches in longitudinal diameter. When the stock is pure the fruit retains this form very persistently. The production of egg-shaped or other forms is a sure indication of impure stock. They are bright red, dark yellow, or light yellowish white in color, two-celled, with very distinct central placenta and comparatively few and large seeds. The fruit is inclined to ripen unevenly, the neck remaining green when the rest of the fruit is quite ripe. It is less juicy than that of most of our garden sorts but of a mild and pleasant flavor. This is considered, by many, to be simply a garden variety, but I am inclined to the belief that it is a distinct species and that the contrary view comes from the study of the impure and crossed stocks resulting from crosses between the true Pear tomato and garden sorts which are frequently sold by seedsmen as pear-shaped. Many garden sorts--like the Plum (Fig. 8), the Egg, the Golden Nugget, Vick's Criterion, etc.--are known to have originated from crosses of the Pear and I think that most, if not all, the garden sorts in which the longitudinal diameter of the fruit is greater than its transverse diameter owe this form to crosses with _L. pyriforme_.

=Cultivated varieties= (_L. esculentum_).--This is commonly used as the botanical name of our cultivated varieties, rather than as the name of a distinct species. In western South America, however, there is found growing a wild plant of Lycopersic.u.m which differs from the other recognized species in being more compact in growth, with fewer branches and larger leaves, and carrying an immense burden of fruit borne in large cl.u.s.ters. The fruit is larger than that of the other species but much smaller than that of our cultivated sorts; is very irregular in shape, always with distinct sutures, and often deeply corrugated and bright red in color. The walls are thin; the flesh is soft, with a distinct sharp, acid flavor much less agreeable than that of our cultivated forms of garden tomatoes.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 9--ONE OF THE FIRST ILl.u.s.tRATIONS OF THE TOMATO _Poma amoris_, (_Pomum aureum_), (_Lycopersic.u.m_), 1581]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 10--AN EARLY ILl.u.s.tRATION OF THE TOMATO (From Morrison's "Historia Universalis," 1680)]

This has commonly been regarded by botanists as a degenerate form of our garden tomatoes, rather than as an original species, but I find that, like _L. cerasiforme_ and _L. pyriforme_, it is quite fixed under cultivation, except as crossed with other species or with our garden varieties, and I believe it to be the original species from which our cultured sorts have been developed, by crossing and selection. Such crosses probably were made either naturally or by natives before the tomato was discovered by Europeans. The earliest prints we have of the tomato (Figs. 9 and 10) are far more like the fruit of this plant than that of _L. cerasiforme_, and the prints of many of the earliest garden varieties and of some sorts which are still cultivated in southern Europe, for use in soups, are like it not only in size and form, but in flavor. These facts make it seem far more probable that our cultivated sorts have come, by crossing, between this and other species rather than by simple development from _L. cerasiforme_.

Prof. E. S. Goff, of Wisconsin, who has made a most careful study of the tomato, expressed the same opinion, writing that it seemed to him that our cultivated sorts must have come from the crossing of a small, round, smooth, sutureless type, with a larger, deep-sutured, corrugated fruit, like that of the Mammoth Chihuahua, but smaller. However this may be, I think that it is wise to throw all of our cultivated garden sorts, except the Pear, the Cherry, and the Grape--which I regard as distinct species--together under the name of _L. esculentum_, even when we know they have originated by direct crosses with the other species; and it is well to cla.s.sify the upright growing sorts under the varietal names, _L.

validum_, and the larger, heavier sorts, as _L. grandifolium_, as has been done by Bailey. (Cyclopedia of Horticulture.)

CHAPTER II

History

The garden vegetable known in this country as tomato and generally as tomate in continental Europe, is also known as Wolf-peach and Love Apple in England and America, and Liebesapfel in Germany, Pomme d'Amour in France, Pomo d'oro in Italy, Pomidor in Poland.

=Origin of name.=--The name tomato is of South American origin, and is derived from the Aztec word _xitomate_, or _zitotomate_, which is given the fruit of both the Common tomato and that of the Husk or Strawberry tomato or Physalis. Both vegetables were highly prized and extensively cultivated by the natives long before the discovery of the country by Europeans, and there is little doubt that many of the plants first seen and described by Europeans as wild species were really garden varieties originated with the native Americans by the variation or crossing of the original wild species.

=Different types now common=, according to Sturtevant, have become known to, and been described by Europeans in about the following order:

1. Large yellow, described by Matthiolus in 1554 and called Golden apple.

2. Large red, described by Matthiolus in 1554 and called Love apple.

3. Purple red, described by D'el Obel in 1570.

4. White-fleshed, described by Dodoens in 1586.