SQUASHES, HOW TO GROW THEM, ETC. 51 



In that excellent work by my friend, Fearing Burr, 

 "The Field and Garden Vegetables of America," will be 

 found quite a list of summer, fall and winter varieties. I 

 am often in receipt of varieties of high local repute in dif- 

 ferent sections of the country, and it is possible that some 

 of them when tested may prove worthy of general culti- 

 vation. 



Passing to the hard or woody stemmed varieties, we 

 find included among them the Winter Crookneck, the 

 Canada Crookneck, Yokohama, and Para. 



The Crooknecks had their day and generation before the 

 introduction of the soft-stemmed varieties. They were then 

 the standard sorts, and the kitchens of thrifty farmers were 

 adorned with choice specimens hanging suspended around 

 the walls by strips of list, to be used during the winter, 

 in the course of the spring, and even well into the sum- 

 mer months. The Crooknecks are characterized by long, 

 usually curved necks, terminating in a bulb-like prominence 

 at the calyx end, which contains the seed. The vines are 

 covered with rough spines, and in the shortness of their 

 leaf-stalks, the smaller size and different color of the leaves, 

 are readily distinguished from the soft-stemmed sorts. 

 They vary much in color at the time of the gathering, and 

 there is a general tendency in all of them to change to a 

 yellow hue in the course of the winter. In quality, the 

 Large Winter Crookneck is coarse grained and watery, 

 while the Canada Crookneck is finer grained, and at times 

 quite dry and sweet. The Winter Crookneck weighs 

 from ten to twenty-five pounds and upwards, and the true 

 Canada Crookneck, which is rarely found pure, averages 

 from four to six pounds. In keeping properties, the 

 Crooknecks excel, frequently keeping in dry, warm apart- 

 ments the year round, and, in a few instances, two years. 

 When kept into the summer the seeds are at times found 

 to have sprouted within the squash. 



The Crooknecks are subject to a kind of dry rot, par- 



