VEGETABLE MARROWS 125 



into large pots. These should be encouraged by 

 ample exposure to light and air to set fruit freely, 

 and begin to form it by the end of September. Then 

 if the plants be stood on a shelf close under the roof 

 of a warm house, and trained up to sloping stakes or 

 wires there should be a crop up to Christmas. A sow- 

 ing of seed made at the end of January should give 

 plants to ripen fruit in warmth at the end of April or 

 early in May, as by that time there is ample sunlight. 

 Earlier ripened fruits are poor. 



VEGETABLE MARROWS. 



Marrows belong to the same family as Gourds and 

 Pumpkins. Although the edible Gourd is not much 

 grown for consumption, it is most useful for soups and 

 stews in winter, and may also be cooked in various ways 

 as a vegetable. The Vegetable Marrow is the more 

 popular, but even this occasionally receives scant 

 justice. Huge Marrows with the seed almost matured 

 are frequently seen, but the flesh is always dry and 

 flavourless, whereas the Marrow cooked whole in 

 a small green state, or cut into two and the soft or 

 pithy portion removed, and the space filled in with 

 minced meat, and the two halves tied together and 

 cooked, makes a delicious vegetable, and that is only 

 one of many ways of serving them. When the 

 Marrow is grown on a huge rubbish heap, or a mass 

 of decayed manure, an enormous plant is produced 

 with few fruits. The reason is that the roots have 



