TOMATOES.
BY REV. V. CLEMENTI, B. A., PETERBOROUGH.
The last number of the Canadian Horticulturist contains a list of what are described as the “four best sorts” of Tomatoes. Permit me to recommend three others to the notice of your readers, the Hathaway, the Acme, and last, but not worst, the Criterion.
The last named I have grown for the first time during the past season, and have been much pleased with it. It is plum shaped, and rather small, but of a delicate flavor and pleasing appearance, and is a most prolific bearer. Its color is red and yellow, and in many instances it is very prettily mottled. At our last horticultural exhibition it attracted much attention, and obtained a first prize. I enclose a water-color sketch of one of an average size, many are larger and some smaller.
While writing about tomatoes, I may mention that in our neighborhood we have been much plagued by an immense number of the larvæ of the Five-spotted Sphinx, S. quinquemaculatus, during the past summer. The caterpillars are commonly called “Tomato Worms,” and are vulgarly supposed to be poisonous; I need scarcely add that the latter imputation is altogether foundationless. Like many other larvæ, they eject, when handled, a drop of liquid from their mouths, but this is quite innocuous. I killed about one hundred of these caterpillars in my own small garden, a number which, if left to their own wicked wills, would speedily have utterly defoliated the whole of my stock of plants.
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The above engraving of the Criterion Tomato has been prepared from the water-color sketch of Mr. Clementi, and will enable our readers to form a just conception of its size and general appearance.
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