1863. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



209 



EXCELLENT 

 The Canada Crookneck Squash. 



Perhvips no vegetable is better known — unless it 

 be the potato — among our New England people, 

 than the Canada Crookneck Squash. It has sev- 

 eral excellent qualities. It is hardy, the vines suf- 

 fering but little from bugs and worms ; the crop 

 is almost a certain one, and it ripens early, and 

 when ripe may be preserved through the entire 

 year. It is uniform in quality, sweet, rich and 

 excellent every way. The good old custom of 

 hanging them about the kitchen walls, where they 

 remained sound and fresh until May or June, is 

 not entirely done away with yet, as we have re- 

 cently seen them in prime condition. 



Mr. Burr, who has kindly fiivored us with the 

 above pleasant illustration, says, "the plants of 

 this variety are similar in habit to those of the 

 common Winter Crookneck ; but the foliage is 

 smaller, and the growth less luxuriant. In point 

 of size, the Canada Crookneck is the smallest of 

 its class. When the variety is unmixed, the 

 weight seldom exceeds five or six pounds. It is 

 sometimes bottle-formed ; but the neck is gener- 

 ally small, solid, and curved in the form of the 

 large Winter Crctoknecks. The seeds are con- 

 tained at the blossom-end, which expands some- 

 what abruptly, and is often slightly ribbed. Skin 

 of moderate thickness, and easily pierced by the 



WINTER SQUASHES. 



Mr. Burr, in his new work on "Field and Gar- 

 den Vegetables" says "the fruit is irregularly oval, 

 sometimes ribbed, but often without rib-marUiugs, 

 from eight to ten niches in length, seven or eight 

 inches in diameter, and weighing from seven to 

 nine pounds — some specimens terminate quite ob- 

 tusely, others taper sharply towards the extremi- 

 ties, which are frequently bent or curved ; skin, 

 or shell, dense and hard, nearly one-eighth of an 

 inch thick, and overspread with numerous small 

 protuberances ; stem fleshy, but not large ; color 

 variable, always rather dull, and usually clay-blue 

 or deep olive-green, — the upper surface, if long 

 exposed to the sun, assuming a brownish cast, and 

 the under surface, if deprived of light, becoming 



/^ 



; 



^fe 



orange-yellow ; flesh ricn salmon-yellow, thicker 

 than that of the Autumnal Marrow, very fine- 



nail : color, when fully ripened, cream-yellow, but, . , ^ , , „ ,, n 



.„ , ' , . , „ , , , a ^ grained, sweet, dry, and of most excellent flavor — 



if long kept, becoming duller and darker ; nesh r ., . , . 



salmon-red, very close-grained, dry, sweet, and 

 fine-flavored ; seeds comparatively small, of a gray- 

 ish or dull white color, with a rough and uneven 

 yellowish-brown border; three hundred are con- 

 tained in an ounce." 



The Hubbard Squash. 

 We have raised and used this squash for sever- 

 al years, and the advice of the women is, to plant 

 no other land. As a whole, it is the best squash 

 we have. It was introduced by J. J. H. GREG- 

 ORY, Esq., of Marblehead, who has frequently 

 spoken of it through these columns. There is 

 one fact in relation to it which may not be gener- 

 ally known, that it is excellent in its early growth, 

 say a third grown, as good as the early Summer 

 Squash, Cymbling, or Scolloped Squash, as it is 

 variously called. 



in this last respect, resembling that of roasted or 

 boiled chestnuts; seeds white— similar to those 

 of the Autumnal Marrow. Season from Septem- 

 ber to June ; but the flesh is dryest and sweetest 

 during autumn and the early part of winter. 



The Hubbard squash should be grown in hills 

 seven feet apart, and Wiree ])lants allowed to a 

 hill. It is essential that the planting be inr.de as 

 far as possible from similar varieties, as it mixes, 

 or hybridizes, readily with all of its kind. In 

 point of productiveness, it is about equal to the 

 Autumnal Marrow. The average yield from six 

 acres was nearly five tons of marketaljle squashes 

 to the acre." 



Forty thousand head of cattle, worth .? 1,600,- 

 000, have been sent East from Iowa, in the past 

 year. 



