Nature Bulletin No. 313-A   September 21, 1968
Forest Preserve District of Cook County
Richard B. Ogilvie, President
Roland F. Eisenbeis, Supt. of Conservation

****:THE TOMATO

The tomato has had a curious history. Like its relative, the potato, it 
originated in South America, was taken to Europe by the Spaniards in 
the early 1500's, and from there was brought to our American 
colonies. Altho Thomas Jefferson's diary mentions "dwarf tomatas" 
and "Spanish tomatas come to table", most people in this country and 
northern Europe were afraid to eat them until about a century ago 
because of their kinship and similarity to the poisonous nightshades. 
Instead they were raised in old-fashioned gardens as ornamental plants 
and their brightly colored fruit, red or yellow but wrinkled and much 
smaller than our modern tomatoes, were used to decorate mantelpieces 
and were called "love apples".

Today, tomatoes are one of our staple foods and we Americans eat an 
average of about two bushels per person per year. One bushel is 
processed commercially into canned tomatoes, soups, tomato juice, 
green pickles, relishes and ketchup. Oil from the seeds is used in soap 
and paint. The other bushel we buy fresh or raise in our gardens. 
While the tomato has a high water content, it is an excellent food. In 
addition to some carbohydrate and protein, it is rich in vitamin A, 
nicotinic acid, and still more so in vitamin C. Six ounces of tomato 
juice are said to provide the average adult with his minimum daily 
requirement of the latter and about one-third his need of vitamin A.

Tens of centuries ago the pre-Incans in Peru began to cultivate a 
nightshade-like vining plant with little red sourish berries. It still 
grows in the highlands of that country. There is also a shrubby tree 
tomato with yellow fruit which is found on the slopes of the Andes 
Mountains, as high as 13,000 feet above sea level, and it can withstand 
severe frosts. The pottery of these ancient people includes accurate 
models of several types of tomatoes as well as corn, potatoes, peppers, 
beans and squashes which they had developed from wild plants and 
grew as crops.

Over the centuries the tomato was carried from Peru to the Maya 
Indians of Central America and thence to the Toltecs of Mexico and 
their Aztec conquerors who called it '"tomat". The Spaniards called it 
"tomate". Now it is grown outdoors throughout the world except in 
frigid and semi-frigid zones. Even in climates with short growing 
season, large crops are possible if the plants are started "under glass". 
It will grow on almost any soil but is killed by the first touch of frost. 
Something of a vegetable hobo, it often thrives on ash piles, garbage 
dumps and, because its small seeds are not digested, on beds of sewage 
sludge. About half of the commercial yield in this country is grown in 
California, Indiana and New Jersey. The rich black nat land in 
southeastern Cook County is the principal tomato area in Illinois. In 
winter, some tomatoes are grown in hothouses but most are shipped 
from Texas and Florida, or imported from Mexico and Cuba.

The smooth thick-walled juicy tomatoes we have nowadays are far 
different from the original kinds from which horticulturists have 
developed scores of strains for different conditions and uses. Some 
have plants which sprawl on the ground, some stand erect like a bush, 
and some climb like a true vine. When ripe, their fruits have a wide 
variety of shades of red or yellow and range in size and shape from the 
little cherry tomato to the "Beefsteaks" and "Oxhearts" which may 
weigh 2 or 3 pounds.

On Broadway, so they say, most guys spend their "potatoes" on dolls 
they call "tomatoes".