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1857 N.Y. Herald 18 July 5/4 Our Northern tomato growers know more about this vegetable than their Southern ‘brethren’.

1867 Prairie Farmer 17 Aug. 102/2 Mr. Booth makes quite a specialty of tomato-growing for the Chicago markets.

1897 Westm. Gaz. 16 Dec. 12/2 To graft the tomato on the potato stalk... So far from taking from the strength of the tubers, the tomato-grafting, he thinks, improves them. He never grew such fine potatoes as with tomato-tops, nor such fine tomatoes as with potato roots.

1903 Lebanon (Indiana) Patriot 3 Sept. Tomato picking is in progress and a good crop is reported here.

1962 Washington (Iowa) Evening Jrnl. 7 Dec. 3/6 We are on the routes taken by tomato sellers who come from Ruskin, a town to the south.

1974 S. Clapham Greenhouse Bk. vi. 42 To remedy the effects of too much nitrogen or even of dull damp weather, particularly in tomato-growing.

2005 Courier-Mail (Brisbane) 21 June (Goodlife section) 3/1 If someone had said six years ago that I would be a tomato farmer in a couple of years, I'd have gone, ‘Ah, get outta here.’

2007 Independent 19 Dec. 2/2 A scheme to pay the tomato pickers a penny extra per pound has been signed off by McDonald's, the world's biggest restaurant chain.