Tomatoville® Gardening Forums


Notices

Historical background information for varieties handed down from bygone days.

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
Old March 9, 2010   #16
remy
Buffalo-Niagara Tomato TasteFest™ Coordinator
 
remy's Avatar
 
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: Z6 WNY
Posts: 2,354
Default

Craig,
I love beans besides tomatoes so that would be nice. I also was surprised to see striped Pansies! They must of been popular back then. Maybe another flower or two that seemed to be the "in" thing back then.
Thanks!
Remy
__________________
"I wake to sleep and take my waking slow"
-Theodore Roethke

Yes, we have a great party for WNY/Ontario tomato growers every year on Grand Island!
Owner of The Sample Seed Shop
remy is offline   Reply With Quote
Old March 9, 2010   #17
PNW_D
Tomatovillian™
 
PNW_D's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: West Coast, Canada
Posts: 960
Default

Ah yes, I see now ........ agree, plant would have been the icing
__________________
D.
PNW_D is offline   Reply With Quote
Old March 9, 2010   #18
nctomatoman
Tomatoville® Moderator
 
nctomatoman's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Hendersonville, NC zone 7
Posts: 10,385
Default

If only they were in color as well, Denise! One thing that has frustrated me about many of the tomato descriptions in the really old seed catalog is the scarcity of adjectives - color, size, flavor, shape - it is all pretty general and pretty brief....though it didn't take long for the opposite to happen - descriptions that made every tomato offered sound like the most wonderful variety in existence (ah, the joy of marketing!).

Now that I have one from the 1870's, I wonder if I can get lucky some day and find one from the 1860s???

Wouldn't it be something if the variety "Hugh's", maintained by Archie Hook in Indiana from the 1940s, was a descendant of or relation to the variety Persian, as described in this catalog?

One other thing interesting - there are all of 3 eggplant listed (one of which is New York Improved - a variety I grow regularly, and it looks just like their illustration!), and they describe one as having purple and white stripes - so Listada di Gandia, available today, may in fact be quite an old variety.
__________________
Craig
nctomatoman is offline   Reply With Quote
Old March 10, 2010   #19
WVTomatoMan
Tomatovillian™
 
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: West Virginia - Zone 6
Posts: 594
Default

Craig,

Congratulations! What a great find! I'm happy for you. And I'm not envious at all, okay well I a little. All of my old catalogs are post 1900. But, they're still interesting to me.

Randy
WVTomatoMan is offline   Reply With Quote
Old March 10, 2010   #20
nctomatoman
Tomatoville® Moderator
 
nctomatoman's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Hendersonville, NC zone 7
Posts: 10,385
Default

Randy, thanks - it is certainly easier to find catalogs in the 1920 forward range - with some between 1900-1920 on occasion. As you mention, irrespective of the age, they are fascinating - and paint a nice picture of how gardening has evolved in the US.
__________________
Craig
nctomatoman is offline   Reply With Quote
Old March 10, 2010   #21
nctomatoman
Tomatoville® Moderator
 
nctomatoman's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Hendersonville, NC zone 7
Posts: 10,385
Default

To those hoping for more pics - I hope to get a few more pages of interest photographed and posted within the next few days - I am thinking a few types of flowers (aster, marigold, pansy, petunia, zinnia all look interesting), plus beans, lettuce, peppers and melons.
__________________
Craig
nctomatoman is offline   Reply With Quote
Old March 12, 2010   #22
Cecilia_MD7a
MAGTAG™ Coordinator
 
Cecilia_MD7a's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Baltimore, MD
Posts: 400
Default

Craig, that is a wonderful find! Is that a LEATHER cover? I can't believe it's in such good shape. How did everybody else miss it - did the seller misspell something in the posting? That's how a guy I know got a very rare cookbook on eBay.
Cecilia_MD7a is offline   Reply With Quote
Old March 12, 2010   #23
nctomatoman
Tomatoville® Moderator
 
nctomatoman's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Hendersonville, NC zone 7
Posts: 10,385
Default

Not the best pics, but here are some more. I will try to replace them with better ones when I get a chance. If you click once you get the pic - click again and it enlarges.
Attached Images
File Type: jpg 002.JPG (403.3 KB, 39 views)
File Type: jpg 003.JPG (414.9 KB, 24 views)
File Type: jpg 004.JPG (422.6 KB, 18 views)
File Type: jpg 005.JPG (402.9 KB, 19 views)
File Type: jpg 006.JPG (617.3 KB, 16 views)
File Type: jpg 007.JPG (531.5 KB, 16 views)
File Type: jpg 008.JPG (513.3 KB, 25 views)
File Type: jpg 009.JPG (493.3 KB, 18 views)
File Type: jpg 010.JPG (522.2 KB, 26 views)
File Type: jpg 011.JPG (498.7 KB, 34 views)
__________________
Craig
nctomatoman is offline   Reply With Quote
Old March 12, 2010   #24
PNW_D
Tomatovillian™
 
PNW_D's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: West Coast, Canada
Posts: 960
Default

$4 for one Gladiolus bulb wonder what that would equate to in today's dollars ......
__________________
D.
PNW_D is offline   Reply With Quote
Old March 15, 2010   #25
remy
Buffalo-Niagara Tomato TasteFest™ Coordinator
 
remy's Avatar
 
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: Z6 WNY
Posts: 2,354
Default

Thanks Craig! I loved looking at them. I'm sure I'll be back to look again too. There were some unusual flowers in that catalog.
Thanks again,
Remy
__________________
"I wake to sleep and take my waking slow"
-Theodore Roethke

Yes, we have a great party for WNY/Ontario tomato growers every year on Grand Island!
Owner of The Sample Seed Shop
remy is offline   Reply With Quote
Old March 31, 2010   #26
bluelacedredhead
Tomatovillian™
 
bluelacedredhead's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: Northwest shore of Lake Ontario Zone 6b
Posts: 117
Default

What a Wonderful find! Thanks for sharing the pics.
bluelacedredhead is offline   Reply With Quote
Old April 5, 2010   #27
Penny
Tomatovillian™
 
Penny's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: Ontario, Canada
Posts: 948
Default

What a great find.
Penny is offline   Reply With Quote
Old April 5, 2010   #28
korney19
Buffalo-Niagara Tomato TasteFest™ Co-Founder
 
korney19's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: The Niagara Frontier
Posts: 942
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by nctomatoman View Post
I got lucky - the auction ended during work day and I was between meetings, so could swipe in and get it (but no, it wasn't cheap!). Very nice, in a leather binding, excellent condition.

It arrived today, I've been thumbing carefully through it. There are far more tomatoes listed than I expected for 1871. Listed 23 tomatoes and one ground cherry (I assume). They are as follows:

Early Smooth Red
Hubbard's Curled Leaf
General Grant
Hathaway's Excelsior
Keyes' Early Prolific
Trophy
Eureka
Orangefield (aka Sim's Cluster)
Dwarf Orangefield
Lyman's Mammoth Cluster -described as large pinkish red that grows in clusters
Alger
Golden Striped - simple description of red and yellow stripes
Cedar Hill
Tilden
Lester's Perfected - described as large, few seeds and late, and pink - this is likely an early "version" of Ponderosa
Persian - described as very large creamy yellow - I've also seen it described elsewhere as nearly white....think "Hugh's" I suppose in appearance.
Large Yellow
Large Smooth Red
Fejee
Pear Shaped
Plum Shaped Yellow
Yellow Cherry
Red Cherry
Winter Cherry

I took some pics - see below.

WHAT?!?!

NO Goose Creek???

(LOL)
korney19 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old April 5, 2010   #29
nctomatoman
Tomatoville® Moderator
 
nctomatoman's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Hendersonville, NC zone 7
Posts: 10,385
Default

Good one, Mark!
__________________
Craig
nctomatoman is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT -4. The time now is 10:24 AM.


★ Tomatoville® is a registered trademark of Commerce Holdings, LLC ★ All Content ©2022 Commerce Holdings, LLC ★