The tomato is the second most widely grown vegetable crop in the world and the number one vegetable grown in home gardens in the U.S. Rich in Vitamins A and C, tomato fruit contains the antioxidant lycopene. A recent long-term medical study indicates that individuals who regularly consume fresh tomatoes or processed tomato products are less likely to develop certain forms of cancer than those who do not. Tomato Plant Culture: In the Field, Greenhouse, and Home Garden provides comprehensive factual information about tomato plant culture and fruit production, beneficial to plant scientists and commercial field and greenhouse growers as well as the home gardener. Data compiled focuses on the more recent literature, including information about the cultural characteristics of the plant; fruit production and related quality factors; and environmental and nutritional requirements for both field- and greenhouse-grown plants.

From the Americas to Australasia, from northern Europe to southern Africa, the tomato tickles the world's taste buds. Americans along devour more than twelve million tons annually of this peculiar fruit, variously considered poisonous, curative, and aphrodisiacal. In this first concerted study of the tomato in America, Andrew F. Smith separates myth from historical fact, beginning with the Salem, New Jersey, man who, in 1820, allegedly attracted spectators from hundreds of miles to watch him eat a tomato on the courthouse steps (the legend says they expected to see him die a painful death). Later, hucksters such as Dr. John Cook Bennett and the Amazing Archibald Miles peddled the tomato's purported medicinal benefits. The competition was so fierce that the Tomato Pill War broke out in 1838. The Tomato in America traces the early cultivation of the tomato, its infiltration of American cooking practices, the early manufacture of preserved tomatoes and ketchup (soon hailed as "the national condiment of the United States"), and the "great tomato mania" of the 1820s and 1830s. The book also includes tomato recipes from the pre-Civil War period, covering everything from sauces, soups, and main dishes to desserts and sweets. Now available for the first time in paperback, The Tomato in America provides a piquant and entertaining look at a versatile and storied figure in culinary history.

Will Tracy's 1907 book is a practical work on all aspects of the growing of the most popular of garden vegetables-the tomato.

While tomatoes continue to be one of the most widely grown plants, the production and distribution of tomato fruits have been changing worldwide. Smaller, flavorful tomatoes are becoming more popular than beefsteak tomatoes, greenhouse-grown tomatoes have entered the marketplace, and home gardeners are using the Internet to obtain information for g