The Bamberg Herald

Tomatoes.

Only in recent times, says the New York Times, has the tomato come into universal favor. In the days of Sir Walter Raleigh and Sir Humphrey Gilbert when the peopling of North America was just beginning, the tomato was almost unknown in North America and in Europe.

It was originally indigenous to South America and may have originated in Peru or some other part of the Andean range favored with an excess of humidity. Years passed before the early colonists realized the plant could be successfully cultivated in these comparatively cold and dry latitudes.

In England as late as the early Victorian era tomatoes were regarded as most luxurious and were grown only in hot-houses. It took half a century for English botanists to ascertain that, in favorable summer weather, the tomato would thrive out of doors. Today some of the best tomatoes in England are grown under glass, near Worthing, on the southwest coast, where thousands of dollars are paid every year to insure the miles of glass necessary.

Some of the choicest tomatoes are now grown on the Island of Madeira, and for years the Canary Islands, particularly the Teneriffe, with its volcanic soil, sent tons of tomatoes to the British markets. The Channel Islands are especially adapted to the growth of tomatoes, not only providing supplies for England, but sending their early tomatoes to the United States.

Culture doesn't really mean so much more than the ability to be bored without nodding your head and to yawn without opening your mouth.