xyiii. 



FEEDING SQUASHES MILK. 



STOEIES are told, especially by Englisli garden- 

 ers, of the production of enormous squashes, 

 pumpkins, etc., by supplying them with water, 

 milk, etc., by means of an opening either directly 

 into the fruit or its stem, or through the hollow 

 stem of an adjoining leaf. In the Michigan 

 Farmer for 1861, p. 235, an account is given of a 

 gardener who was noted for the size of the pump- 

 kins which he raised. The " secret " of his method 

 was to bore a hole into the pumpkin when a few 

 weeks old, and insert a candle-wick, the other end of 

 which was placed in a basin of water. It is alto- 

 gether probable that such stories were first told by 

 successful gardeners to their inquiring neighbors, 

 not for the purpose of revealing, but in order to 

 conceal their actual methods of operation; and there 

 have at all times been those who were ready to ac- 

 cept such improbable statements to account for ex- 

 traordinary results. I have known several attempts 

 to verify these statements, always with negative 

 results. In one conducted at the Iowa Experi- 

 ment Station by Prof. G. E. Patrick and the writer, 



(114) 



