CHAPTER XXXII. 



SQUASHES. 



MAMMOTH SQUASHES OR PUMPKINS. Cucurbit a maxima. 

 French potirons ; German, melonen-kurbiss ; Danish, centner-groeskar ; 

 Italian, zucca; Spanish, calabaza totanera. 



MARROWS AND SCOLLOPS. Cucurbita pepo. 

 The species moschata also contributes same horticultural varieties. 



The California-grown squashes are all noted for prodigious 

 size and the acre-product is also immense. Squashes have been 

 used from the early days as exponents of size in California vege- 

 tables, at all distant and local exhibitions, and the statistics thereof 

 would fill a volume. Weights of single specimens have been at- 

 tained in excess of three hundred pounds, and field crops above 

 thirty tons to the acre. To avoid exaggeration and at the same 

 time present the truth about the California squash in a picturesque 

 manner, a single record is presented from the writer's collection of 

 cucurbitous literature. Philander Kellogg, of Goleta, Santa Bar- 

 bara county, who is personally known to the writer as a man of 

 truth and probity, furnishes this statement: 



I planted my squashes in May, and harvested them in October. Finding 

 chat they were unusually large, I weighed 10 of the largest and found tnat 

 their aggregate weight was one ton and 50 odd pounds, the largest one 

 weighing 225 pounds. This squash was exhibited at the county fair and 

 received the first prize. On the 15th of November, which was my boy's 16th 

 birthday, I cut open one of the other squashes, that weighed 210 pounds, 

 and took out the seeds ; my boy then got into it and I put the piece together 

 and completely closed him in, the parts coming tight together. I then per- 

 suaded my eighteen-year-old daughter to get into it and I closed her in, 

 in the same manner. My daughter's weight was 110 pounds. I then put 

 two seven-year-old boys in at once. I then put my three little girls in at 

 once; they were aged respectively six, four and two years, their united 

 weight being 116 pounds. I placed the largest child in the bottom and the 

 little one on the top and then put on the lid; the squash was cut so that the 

 top could be easily put on or removed. The squash was three feet four or 

 five inches in length. 



The growth and productiveness of the plant in specially favor- 

 able places are proportional to the size of the fruit; vine growth of 

 (282) 



