Tomato Culture

Tomato Culture, subtitled A Practical Treatise on the Tomato, is by Will W. Tracy of the Bureau of Plant Industry, United States Department of Agriculture. The title page lists, among others, its history, characteristics, planting, fertilization and cultivation in field, garden, and greenhouse. The text describes the fruit as a two to many-celled berry with central fleshy placenta and many small kidney-shaped seeds which are densely covered with short, stiff hairs.

The author says it is comparatively easy to define the genus with which the tomato should be classed botanically, but by no means so easy to classify cultivated varieties into botanical species. A passage on setting plants says that sunshine on the leaves of a plant rarely does any injury, but it is very injurious to the roots. On bacterial wilt, the text says that in case bacterial wilt develops growers should not plant that land in tomatoes, potatoes, or eggplants for three or four years. Diseased plants become dangerous sources of infection, and the text says all such should be pulled out and burned.