PUMPKIN PIES. 
297 
ripen ; on some farms, they are harvesting both crops — red buck- 
wheat sheaves, and withered corn-stalks, are standing about the 
fields. All through the summer months, the maize-fields are 
beautiful with their long glossy leaves ; hut when ripe, dry and 
colorless, they will not compare with the waving lawns of other 
grains. The golden ears, however, after the husk has been taken 
off, are perhaps the noblest heads of grain in the world ; the rich 
piles now lying about the fields are a sight to rejoice the farmer’s 
heart. 
The great pumpkins, always gro-wn with maize, are also lying 
ripening in the sun ; as w'e have had no frost yet, the vines are 
still green. When they are haiwested and gathered in heaps, the 
pumpkins rival the yellow corn in richness ; and a farm-wagon 
carrying a load of husked com and pumpkins, bears as handsome 
a load of produce as the country yields. It is a precious one, too, 
for the farmer and his flocks. 
Cattle are very fond of pumpkins ; it is pleasant to see what a 
feast the honest creatures make of them in the barn-yard ; they 
evidently consider them a great dainty, far superior to common 
provender. But in this part of the world, not only the cattle, but 
men, women, and children — we all eat pumpkins. Yesterday, the 
first pumpkin-pie of the season made its appearance on table. It 
seems rather strange, at a first glance, that in a country where 
apples, and plums, and peaches, and cranberries abound, the 
pumpkin should be held in high favor for pies. But this is a 
taste which may probably be traced back to the early colonists ; 
the first housewives of New England found no apples or quinces in 
the -wilderness ; but pumpkins may have been raised the first sum- 
mer after they landed at Plymouth. At any rate, we know that 
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