VEGETABLES. 327 



so rapid an increase of these monster varieties, appears to indi- 

 cate something of a mania among our worthy farmers. In the 

 year 1855, five or six of the large varieties were exhibited ; in 

 1856, upwards of a dozen, and at our last exhibition not far 

 from one-half of the space was occupied by huge specimens of 

 the squash tribe. At this rate of increase, for a certainty the 

 society will soon have to make arrangements for the squash 

 exhibition, and make this a special department. However, we 

 rate the common sense and prudent foresight of our worthy 

 farmers too high to anticipate any great injury to our agriculture 

 from this source. The community certainly have a right to 

 expect some aid from the committee to determine the quality of 

 these large varieties. "Are they sweet ? " " Are they dry ? " 

 " Are they fine grained ? " were questions continually asked by 

 the spectators, to which they could obtain answers from no 

 responsible, disinterested party. Nearly all of these monsters 

 sprung from two varieties, specimens of one or both of which 

 were exhibited for the first time at tlie fair of 1855 ; we found 

 by inquiry that one of them for table use was utterly worthless, 

 and that the other might at times be passable. This is as might 

 have been anticipated from their size, but if the committee of 

 that year had been enabled by the regulations of the society to 

 test the quality of these and all other new comers, and could 

 thus have reported authoritatively in this matter, would not 

 their report have given a check to this mania ? Unless the 

 committee have granted to them in the programme of the society, 

 the right to test the qualities of every new candidate for public 

 favor, what inefficient automata they are ? they can merely cer- 

 tify that the articles were new or looked well, but what practical 

 aid do they render the farmer by recommendations resting on 

 such a basis ? 



As one illustration of the necessity of such disinterested testi- 

 mony on which the public may rely, a most prolific variety of 

 the gourd family may be instanced, fifty-two of which, averaging 

 seven or eight pounds each, were exhibited as the product of a 

 single seed. Such an extraordinary yield exhibited under the 

 name of squashes, would at once draw the attention of enterpris- 

 ing farmers, and with the general intimation (if tliey obtained 

 any information on the subject) that one person had heard a 

 second person say that a third person had cooked one and found 



