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Old August 3, 2016   #8
JLJ_
Tomatovillian™
 
Join Date: Aug 2011
Location: Wyoming
Posts: 759
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Quote:
Originally Posted by dheideman View Post
I acquired this a short while ago and wanted to make it available -- an old Livingston catalog in gorgeous condition!
That's beautiful -- thanks for posting it!

I found it particularly interesting that it's a Livingston document that lists Aristocrat as no longer in production.

But Aristocrat may yet turn up in some seed bank/collection, public or private, or as someone's "great grandma always grew this".

It's an informational brochure, rather than a catalog, isn't it?

Do you know the date? My guess would be the 1930's, as the last section mentions Marglobe under five of its six 'most popular" headings -- and it should have probably been in the sixth, home gardening, as well -- as it was certainly popular with my grandmother, and many others, as a "does it all workhorse" for the home garden by that time.

The famous Marglobe was developed by Pritchard of the USDA by crossing Marvel -- a selection he created and stabilized around 1918 from Merveille des Marches (Marvel of the Market) -- with Livingston's Globe.

Though Marglobe was released in the 1920's, it was more well known in the 1930's -- plus the brochure mentions two Marglobe children, Pritchard (released as Scarlet Topper, but renamed Pritchard after the developer's untimely death in the early 1930's), and Break O Day, also a Marglobe child developed by Pritchard, released in the early 1930's)

So it seems that brochure couldn't have been printed earlier than the 1930's -- and if it had been as late as the 1940's it would probably have also mentioned Marglobe's child Rutgers.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Christa B. View Post
Very nice find! Now off to do some googling and see if Buckeye State tomato still exists. I would love to try it since I live in Ohio (the Buckeye State).
Here's a good source.

http://www.victoryseeds.com/tomato_buckeye-state.html

You might also be interested in Pritchard's remarks about Buckeye State in

BULLETIN 1015, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. March 28, 1922

DEVELOPMENT OF WILT-RESISTANT TOMATOES.

By Fred J. Pritchard, Physiologist, Office of Cotton, Truck, and Forage Crop
Disease Investigations.

https://ia801703.us.archive.org/11/i...il1015prit.pdf

Briefly, he thinks Buckeye State is a variety more useful for breeding than for use -- and explains why. But that doesn't mean you might not like it for sentimental reasons. Also, though they said it generally meets Livingston's original descriptions, Victory seeds was unable to document the pedigree of the surviving Buckeye State tomato -- which suggests that it could be a version of the original Buckeye State improved through some generations of family growing for use.

Last edited by JLJ_; August 3, 2016 at 12:56 AM.
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