140 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



to raise for our Irish and German brethren ; but where the 

 market is more distant, or there is mostly a different class of 

 customers, then the Stone Mason and Fottler become standard 

 sorts. For family use, the Savoy family are decidedly the best, 

 having that rich, marrow-like taste that belongs to no other 

 class of cabbages. The Early Ulm Savoy is as early or earlier 

 than Early York, and, with the Improved American Savoy, is as 

 reliable for heading as any cabbage grown. I have been exper- 

 imenting with over sixty foreign and native varieties this season, 

 of which I may have more to say at some other time. 



When the Autumnal Marrow, or Boston Marrow squash, as 

 it is usually called, was first introduced, it was of small size, 

 weighing about five or six pounds ; it cooked very dry, was fine- 

 grained and of excellent quality. At the present time it is 

 usually watery, often coarse-grained, and poor in quality ; we 

 have utterly lost its fine qualities for the table. Within a few 

 years, the American Turban, as a fall squash, and the Hubbard, 

 for winter use, have, to a large extent, replaced the Marrow 

 upon our tables. In these two we find the chief good charac- 

 teristics of the Marrow when in its palmiest days, and, in addi- 

 tion, superior keeping properties which characterize these two 

 fine varieties. As a general rule, the Turban and Hubbard are 

 too grainy in their texture to enter into the structure of that 

 grand Yankee luxury, a squash pie. For this the Marrow ex- 

 cels , and this, I hold, is now the proper sphere of this squash ; 

 it is now a pie squash. Where dryness, sweetness and quality 

 for the table are sought for, we find these, as a rule, in squashes 

 of medium size, those weighing from six to ten pounds. This, 

 therefore, I hold, should be the standard encouraged for a table 

 squash. If we select large specimens for seed stock, we find, in 

 practice, that there is more of sport in the crop ; that the Hub- 

 bard gradually loses its shell and grows coarse in structure, 

 while the Turban tends to develop the cross of the French 

 Turk's cap that is in its blood, which gives it size at the expense 

 of quality. Because this is so, and because the temptation 

 among marketmen is to raise weight at the sacrifice of quality, 

 I hold that our premiums should point emphatically to the cor- 

 rect standard of weight in these two prominent table squashes. 

 Discussing the Marrow as a pie squash (and I find that the most 

 intelligent of the market-gardeners around Boston agree with 



