VEGETABLES. 141 



me,) I hold that our premiums consult the best welfare of both 

 consumer and producer, when they encourage the largest crop 

 possible consistent with a sufficient fineness of structure for 

 pies. It is my opinion that for this use the Marrow squash can 

 safely be grown to average from twelve to fourteen pounds in 

 weight. The idea entertained by many good farmers, that 

 special aim should be made to grow the Marrow as small sized 

 as formerly, when it was so excellent a table squash, based on 

 the idea that by so doing we can get the old excellence back 

 again, is a delusion, as is proved by the fact that, with all the 

 efforts in this direction, the old excellence has not been recov- 

 ered. 



The annual exhibition of vegetables this season was hardly 

 up to the usual standard. We particularly missed the great 

 variety usually displayed by Mr. Merrill, who for so many years 

 has been the right hand of the society in this department. As 

 the exhibitors had no standard in common to guide them while 

 selecting their various kinds of vegetables for the annual fair, I 

 hardly feel that tlie quality of the vegetables was open to crit- 

 icism. There was a large variety on the tables, and some fine 

 specimens of the various standard kinds. 



It would greatly improve our vegetable exhibitions if the same 

 plan was pursued as has been adopted in the fruit department 

 — that of offering special premiums for each standard vegetable, 

 the number of specimens required of each kind to be stated, 

 and the standard of excellence to be briefly given. The Mas- 

 sachusetts Horticultural Society has practised this in part for 

 the past few years, with marked improvement in its annual ex- 

 hibitions. In its printed programme the society has confined 

 itself to specifying how many in number or how much in meas- 

 ure of each vegetable was required to compete for the premiums 

 offered. I propose that our ancient society become a pioneer in 

 a still further improvement, and fix a standard of excellence in 

 the several vegetables, so far as the characteristics present 

 themselves to the eye. The experience and good judgment of 

 the vegetable committee of the Massachusetts Horticultural So- 

 ciety has usually assigned premiums to the most deserving of 

 their kind ; yet, in their exhibitions, anomalies have been pre- 

 sented that would be impossible under the more matured system 

 that I propose — such as prominent premiums assigned to over- 



