SQUASHES, HOW TO GROW THEM, ETC. 45 



old lady of over four score years, and recalls the original 

 form, which is much like that of the present type — turned 

 up " like a Chinese shoe." It is now above twenty years 

 since the variety was first brought to our notice by our 

 old washerwoman named Hubbard ; and to distinguish it 

 from a blue variety that we were then raising, we called 

 it "Ma'am Hubbard's Squash" ; and when the seed became 

 a commercial article, and it became necessary to give it a 

 fixed name, I called it the Hubbard squash. If I had been 

 able at the time to forecast its present fame, and have fore- 

 seen that it would become the established winter variety, 

 throughout the squash growing region, I might have be- 

 stowed some more ambitions name ; and a^ain I misrht 

 not, for the old lady was faithful in her narrow sphere in 

 her day and generation, a good, humble soul, and it pleases 

 me to think that the name of such an one has become, with- 

 out any intent of hers, famous. 



The form of the Hubbard is spherical at the middle, 

 gradually receding to a neck at the stem end, and to a 

 point usually curved at the calyx end, where it terminates 

 in a kind of button or an acorn. In color it is dark green, 

 excepting where it rests on the earth, where it is of an or- 

 ange color. It usually has streaks of dirty w T hite begin- 

 ning at the calyx end, where the ribs meet, and extend- 

 ing half or two-thirds way up the squash. After the squash 

 ripens, the surface exposed to the sun turns to a dirty 

 brown color. The surface is often quite rough, and presents 

 quite a knotty appearance. When the Hubbard is ripe it 

 has a shell varying in thickness from that of a cent to that 

 of a Spanish dollar. 



For a year or two after we began to cultivate the Hub- 

 bard, we cultivated also a blue colored squash, called, at 

 the time, the Middleton Blue. In a few years this squash 

 became so thoroughly incorporated with the Hubbard, by 

 repeated crossings,'that it appeared to share the character- 

 istics of a new variety • hence we called it the blue Hub- 



