Diana Murray, age 7, of Casper, Wyo., for her question:

IS THE TOMATO A FRUIT OR VEGETABLE?

One of the most widely used food items in the world is the tomato. Although many people consider it to be a vegetable and use it on the dinner table as such, botanists consider the tomato a fruit.

Probably no other garden item has as many different uses as the tomato. And on top of being very popular and versatile, the tomato is also one of the world's best sources of both vitamin A and C.

The fruit is round and smooth. At first it is green but it turns either red or yellow as it ripens. The plant on which the fruit grows is a wide and spreading bush. As the fruit gets larger and riper, the plant tends to spread out on the ground.

Leading crop among all those canned in the United States is the tomato. It is also one of the most important market garden, truck farm and greenhouse food crops.

Market garden tomatoes come from almost every state. They are usually grown on farms near most large cities. Leading tomato growing states include California, Florida, Indiana, New Jersey and Ohio. Ontario is the leading tomato growing Canadian province.

The greenhouse tomato growing industry centers in northern Ohio.

Tomatoes were domesticated by the Indians of Central America. But the idea of growing the fruit for food had spread to both North and South America long before Columbus arrived.

Seeds of the tomato were taken to Europe where the plants were at first raised for decoration. A superstition arose that the tomato stimulated love. Because of this, the tomato was called the "love apple."

Tomato seeds came back to North America from Europe when early colonists settled in Virginia. Thomas Jefferson was one of the first to eat tomatoes but the fruit didn't become popular until several years after the Civil War.

During the years, plant breeders have done much to improve the tomato and to add to its usefulness. Its yields have been doubled and varieties with larger, smoother, more even shapes and meatier pulps have been developed. Also several varieties have been bred to resist tomato wilt, a common and serious disease.

Better methods of handling and canning the tomato have also been developed. This has helped to preserve the tomato's vitamins and also has improved the flavors of both tomato juice and tomato soup.

To grow tomatoes, plants that are six to eight weeks old are usually taken from greenhouses or hotbeds and transplanted to fields or gardens about two weeks after the last frost of the spring. Usually the plants are set four feet apart in four foot rows.

In small gardens tomatoes may be set in 30 inch rows, 18 inches apart and trained to grow on stakes or on trellises. This means that the secondary stems must be removed and the plants must usually be tied to the stakes.

Staking increases the yield on a given area of land but it also decreases the number of tomatoes per plant.