^4 ON VECiKTABLK PKulJUCTS. 



Our tables have been loaded, from year to year, with squash= 

 fcs of every form and variety, with quite too little notice of this 

 branch of cnlturs. On looking after it a little, we find m the 

 town of Marblehead, and other places, it is one of the most 

 profitable crops that can be raised. We know gentlemen, 

 whose statements are worthy of entire confidence, Avho have 

 assured us that they have realized two hundred dollars from 

 the seeds only of the marrow squash, grown on a single acre, 

 in one year. The substance of this vegetable is nutritive and 

 agreeable to animals, as well as to men^ it therefore must he 

 an object Worthy of culture. It can be grown, wherever the 

 land is in good condition, and the vigilance of the laborer, is 

 in AtoVANCK oY THE BUGS. Nothing can be matured without 

 vigilant care. We learn, from the best authority, Dr. T. W. 

 Harris, of Cambridge, Mass., that it has been a prevalent opin- 

 ion among botanists, that pumpkins and squashes were natives 

 of the Eastern continent, from whence they were introduced 

 into America by Europeans. But he is satisfied that they did 

 not begin to be known in Europe, before the discovery of 

 America ; and that various kinds of them were found by the 

 first discoverers and first settlers in diilerent parts of North and 

 South America, where they were extensively cultivated by the 

 Indian inhabitants as articles of food. Several kinds had been 

 introduced into Europe, before the settlement of New Eng- 

 land. In England, they bore generally the name of pumpkins, 

 from which winter squashes were not particularly distinguish- 

 ed by name. The word squash, originally applied to the sum- 

 mer squashes, is derived from the Indian name of the same 

 kind of fruit, as we learn from Roger Williams and others. 

 They were found at Montreal in 1535, at Florida in 1539, at 

 Virginia in 1585, at Martha's Fineyard in 1603. Our fathers 

 made great account of fruits of this kind. Says Capt. John- 

 son : — "Let no man make a jest of pumpkins, for with this 

 fruit the Lord was pleased to feed his people to their good con- 

 tent, till corn and cattle were increased." So we see, that our 

 fathers were nut limited in their diet, to clams and fishes, but 

 had a plenty of squashes also. On inquiry for a genuine 

 specimen of Commodore Porter's Valparaiso squash, we were 



