VEGETABLES. 429 



find their relaxation and delight where our first parents found 

 the home of their innocence — in a garden. We notice one spec- 

 imen, which we beg leave to call squash the great, nearly two 

 yards in circumference, and weighing ninety-seven pounds. But 

 large as it was, we found a variety of cucumbers more than long 

 enough to put an entire hoop around its portly waist. Other 

 squashes there were, worthy of mention. We noticed one loving 

 family of twenty-two members, that had lain in the autumn sun 

 around a single hill. 



But the collections were the " observed of all observers." 

 This portion of the show stands without a rival in any thing we 

 have ever seen. Each collection was little less than a stack of 

 vegetables, a pyramid of garden sauce. It is easier to tell what 

 was not there, than what loas. There were egg-plants, cauli- 

 flowers, onions, peppers ; there were carrots long enougli to be 

 the " staff of life ;" there were cabbages large enough to show 

 that it was no small thing even to be a cabbage-head now-a-days ; 

 there were beets that could not be beat; there were nearly 

 thirty varieties of potatoes, and finally " some pumpkins." In 

 fact, from the top of the Ijeanpole to the bottom of the parsnip- 

 root, there was no part of ordinary gardening at this season left 

 unrepresented. The congress of garden vegetables was full. 

 There was no room for a minus sign any where. In a word, it 

 looked sance-y ! 



There were six separate collections, varying from forty to 

 eighty varieties. They all take a premium, and deserve it. 

 After disposing of premium number one, (which was not diffi- 

 cult,) the only doubt seemed to be as to theorc/6Tof the several 

 competitors. If injustice has been done, it is because it was 

 impossible to decide. There was also a collection of twenty-four 

 varieties of potatoes, raised by one person, to which the commit- 

 tee attached some adjectives of praise. The inquiry was raised, 

 whether all the exhibitors were the actual raisers of every article 

 exhibited. If not, every person having so offended, will remem- 

 ber that, according to the rules of the society, and all justice, 

 they are entitled to no premium. 



In closing, we beg leave to add : The subject is an important 

 one. All the community are not farmers ; but almost without 

 exception, every houseliolder is a raiser of vegetables. Every 

 house has the suburb of a garden. How important, then, that 



