1880. 



XEW ENGLAND FAiniER. 



19 



or six claj's in getting out the witch grass, from an 

 acre at the first hoeing, instead of destroying it by 

 very late fall, and very early spring, plowing. If 

 he makes this mistake, or some other as great, he 

 labors at a loss, and adds five or six dollars to the 

 cost of his crop ! And so with regard to several 

 other points which it is scarcely necessary to enu- 

 merate. 



For the Xcw Eiiriland Farmer. 

 THE HUBBARD SQUASH. 



WHAT IT HAS DON'IC THIS SKASOX, WHEN TO IlItlNO IT 

 TO THii TAr.I,i:, ETC. 



In many localities this has been a hard squash 

 year. Correspondents from northern New Eng- 

 land, central New Yorlv, several of the western 

 States, and a portion of Pennsylvania, make men- 

 tion of frosts fatal to vines, while the drought 

 which late in the season prevailed in north-west- 

 ern New England, a ])ortion of the west, and in 

 some sections of our own State, was almost equal- 

 ly fatal. These, with the usual casualties from 

 bug and borer to M'hich vines are subject, have 

 disap]>ointed the anticipations of hundreds of en- 

 terprising men, who with the close of the season 

 have reaped but their troul)le for their pains. In 

 an old town from which this now somewhat cele- 

 brated squash first went forth, with two exceptions, 

 the yield has been very satisfactory, the average 

 yield having been not far from six tons to the 

 acre. My friend, Mr. Looney, from 15,200 feet of 

 land (about one-third of an acre) obtained 7000 

 pounds of fine specimens, or at the rate of about 

 ten tons to the acre ; on the other hand, a friend 

 whose land was but poorly drained, obtained from 

 his half acre hardly sufficient squashes to pay for 

 his seed. Neither extreme is a guide to the sensi- 

 ble cultivator. For my own ])art, I have so much 

 faith in the public appreciation of this squash, 

 founded on a personal acquaintance of its good 

 qualities of fifteen years standing, that I have nov/ 

 seventy-two tons in store, and permit me, Mr. Ed- 

 itor, to refer any of our friends, who from una- 

 voidable causes have failed in their attempts to 

 raise it, to an advertisement in this paper. I am 

 afraid that many experimenters are making a mis- 

 take in determining the quality of the Hubbard 

 squash. It is not claimed of the Hubbard that it 

 is the best of fall squashes ; those who like a fine 

 grained, dry meated squash will find nothing to 

 excel the Hubbard in the early fall, but it does 

 not gain its highest quality, its sweet and rich, 

 nutty flavor, till winter opens. 



A word about the purity of the Hubbard squash. 

 Literally, any variety of squash is pure only M'hcn 

 it is entirely free from any admixture with any 

 other variety ; but practical/ [/, no squash (the 

 crook-neck perhaps, excepted) is found pure to 

 this degree. For practical purposes, and in an 

 honest use of the term "pure," a squash may be 

 so called after two or three years of entirely iso- 

 lated culture, gi-eat care in the meanwhile being 

 exercised in the selection of seed. When the 

 Hubbard becomes crossed with the autumnal Mar- 

 row, the fact becomes very conspicuous from the 

 strong contrast in color ; while the Marrow, when 

 crossed with the African or South American vari- 

 eties, may so conceal the fact as to make it evi- 

 dent to the critical eye only. jSIaking a fair allow- 



ance for the difference, and the fact that what are 

 sometimes termed crosses, are but the product of 

 seed of various varieties that were smuggled in 

 the manure, and I think we may infer that the 

 Hubbard has, by careful culture, now attained a 

 high degree of purity. The presence of the two 

 varieties, the blue and green, indicate of necessity 

 no want of ])urity, the difi'erence being only in 

 color, while the various shades in these two colors 

 for the most part but indicate different degi-ees of 

 ripeness. AVhether my theory as regards the de- 

 gree of purity possible to be attained by this 

 squash be correct or incorrect, (and I would con- 

 fine my remarks to the seed of last s])ring's plant- 

 ing,) the public may rest assured that whatever 

 progress it is possible to make in this direction by 

 isolated culture, will be as carefully attended to in 

 the future as it has been for the two seasons past 

 In conclusion, Mr. Editor, permit me to invite any 

 of our farmer friends who may like the not'ion of 

 looking on seventy-two tons of Hubbard squashes, 

 to take a trip this way, where I will he happy to 

 play the part of exhibitor, and answer any Yan- 

 kee questions to the extent of mv ability. 



3farblehcad, Mass. ^'^^^^^ ^'- ^- Gkkgoky. 



For the New Enr/lnnd Farmer 

 A LITTLE MORS ABOUT DRAIKTAGE. 

 BY JUDGE FRENCH. 



My Dear Brown : — My table is loaded with 

 letters and papers about drainage, and I know not 

 what to do with them better than to give them, or 

 some notice of them, to our readers. And first, 

 here is a letter from Edmund Ruffin, of old Vir- 

 ginia, and a volume, published l)y him in 18ou, of 

 "Essays and Notes on Agriculture." The writer 

 is described on the title page, as "A practical farm- 

 er of Virginia, from 1812, founder and sole editor 

 of the Farmer\<i Iteglster, meml^er and secretary 

 of the former State Board of Agriculture ; for- 

 merly agricultural surveyor of the St.^te of South 

 Carolina, and the first chosen president of the Vir- 

 ginia State Agricultural Society." The volume 

 contains, among the rest, an Essay on Draining, 

 one on Clover Culture, one on the Management 

 of Wheat Harvest, one on the Weevil, one on "Em- 

 banked Tide-marshes and Mill-ponds, as Causes 

 of Disease," and one on the "Usefulness of Snakes !" 



Mr. RufRn was a farmer, it seems, in 1812, be- 

 fore I was born, and he has diligently served the 

 cause of agriculture ever since. In 18:38, he re 

 published Elkington's System of Drainage, by 

 Johnstone, and he probably better understands 

 that system than any other man in this country. 

 Now, for one, I love to honor a man like this, one 

 who through evil report and good report, stands 

 by the cause of agriculture. He may advocate 

 slavery, if he will, and we will take no offence 

 when he sends us pro-slavery documents. Such 

 "incendiary publications" do us no harm. Eli 

 Thayer and his emigrants, with free labor and New 

 England thrift, will argue these questions on Vir- 



