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VOL. XLVIII. NO, 2049. 
NEW YORK, MAY 4, 1889. 
PRICE FIVE CENTS. 
$2.00 PER YEAR. 
[Entered according to Act of Congress, In the Year 1889, by the Rural New-Yorker, In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.] 
fycxiunltuxaL 
BIG VEGETABLES. 
If a farmer’s boy—or for that matter a far¬ 
mer’s boy’s father—were to be asked as to 
whether his primary object in raising a crop 
would be best served by getting a large crop, 
or large specimens of an ordinary yield, is 
there any one who doubts as to what the 
answer would be? Visit any boy’s vegetable 
garden, or any girl’s flower garden and the 
chances are ten to one that the big pumpkin 
and tall corn, and the great sunflower and 
biggest pansy will be pointed to with the 
proudest finger. It is not far from being just 
the same in father’s field—the Herd’s grass up 
to the shoulder, the mammoth potatoes and 
the yard-long tobacco leaves ask for first 
praise, with the matter of tons and bushels 
of secondary consideration. I say nothing 
about the farmer’s wife, the boy’s mother. 
But I will, for such am I, and-1 admire the 
prodigies of the field and garden as much as 
"father,” Will and Ruth can do. For their 
benefit and to stimulate their endeavors, I 
have prepared from my note-book, the Rural 
and some other papers, a “ record of big 
things,” which I think may interest the read¬ 
ers who “seek the same ends.” The largest 
squash on record was a Mammoth Chili, 
raised by Charles Hewitt Esq., Lunenburg, 
N. S., and weighing 292 pounds. This same 
gentleman, in 1885, raised a Potiron pumpkin 
weighing 206)4 pound*; but Jos. Quinn of 
Bryantsville, Ky., beat him with one of 226 
pounds. There are three varieties of big on¬ 
ions, Silver King," Pompeii and Red Victoria. 
In 1886 A. Banister, of Meadows, W. T., grew 
a Silver King weighing 4 11-12 pounds and 
G. F. Montgomery of Pownal, Vt., one ot 4 1 12 
pounds. The biggest Pompeii on record was 
raised in 1886 by G. H. Slaymaker of Atkin¬ 
son, Nob., five pounds and five ounces. The 
Victorias this year brought out by Burpee are 
said to be the largest of all. The largest cu¬ 
cumber reported was a Giant Pera, grown in 
1888 by Theo. Southard, Madison Station, 
Ala. It measured 22 inches in length and 14 
inches in circumference and weighed seven 
pounds and 10 ounces. For watermelons, 
John G. Miller of Stone Mountain, Ga., has 
the best record. In 1883 he grew three Cuban 
Queens of 81, 97 and 111 pounds, and in 1886 a 
Mammoth Ironclad of 110 pounds seven ounces 
and one of 128 pounds. The biggest pepper 
I ever saw was a Procopp’s Giant, grown by 
W. A. Burpee, Doyle3town, Pa. and measur¬ 
ing three by nine inches. 
In 1888, E. O. Hopson, Canandaigua, N. Y., 
grew a Turner Hybrid tomato of two pounds 
nine ounces. A common weight is 25 to 30 
ounces. In Bucks county, Pa., it i3 quite 
common to find leaves of the Persian Rose 
Muscatelle tobacco measuring 8)4 by 4)4 feet. 
The Golden Wax Flageolet pole bean and the 
King Lima grow pods eight inches long. The 
Cuban Asparagus bean has them two feet 
and upward in length. The Golden Mam¬ 
moth mangel weighs 20 to 30 pounds. The 
Marblehead Mammoth cabbage grows to a 
weight of 50 pounds. The Mammoth Late is 
the largest sweet corn, weighing two to three 
pounds each ear. The Snake cucumber 
grows six feet long. The Mammoth Russian 
sunflower has heads 12 to 22 inches in dia¬ 
meter. The flower of the Fairy Blush poppy 
is 10 to 13 inches in circumference The 
Diamond aster is two to three inches in dia¬ 
meter. The Burpee Defiance pansies are two 
to four inches across. The Moon-Flower 
measures four to six inches in diameter. The 
Tuberous-Rooted begonia and the Giant 
Mammoth zinnias have flowers four to six 
inches across. The Perfection Pink balsam 
has flowers 2)4 inches across. Other large 
vegetables and flowers might be mentioned, 
but these, measured and weighed by the gar¬ 
deners on the Fordhook Farm (Mr. Burpee’s, 
at Doylestown, Pa.) fully satisfied the curious 
visitor. 
I might add, in closing, that I was assured 
last summer that in England, while they did 
not grow so many such enormous vegetables 
as we do, they “beat the Americans” witn 
the largest number of medium-sized. The 
implication is that our vegetables are either 
notably very large or very small, with but 
little of “ the happy mean.” I wonder if it is 
so! MRS. L. M. c. 
[Large specimens of fruits or vegetables 
will always be regarded with interest.—E ds.] 
THE WEEPING BEECH. Summer Picture. Fig. 101. 
THE WEEPING BEECH. 
OME ] 20 years ago the writer 
qj §& ) zVi ) first saw a specimen of this odd 
tree in the grounds of R. B. 
Parsons & Co. of Flushing, Long 
Island, N. Y. About 12 years 
ago the R. N.-Y. sent an artist 
to sketch this tree in early spring, before the 
buds had started. Its portrait, as it appeared 
in summer, had been published in many hor¬ 
ticultural periodicals, but the R. N.-T. was 
the first to show the eccentric, freaky growth 
of its branches, which in summer are almost 
entirely concealed by their luxuriant foliage. 
Our present illustrations show a tree which 
was planted in the Rural Grounds 15 yea^s 
ago, the one [Fig. 102) a winter, the other 
(Fig. 101) a summer picture. In the former, 
two sheets were placed behind the tree so as 
the better to divide the spray from the back¬ 
ground of other near-by shrubs ana trees. In 
the summer picture, the photograph so blends 
the foliage of the beech with the trees behind 
it that its proportions must, in great part, be 
guessed at by our readers. 
The main object in presenting the pictures 
is to show the reader about how long it is 
needful to wait ere his Weeping Beech may 
be expected to develop the picturesque beauty 
tor which, above, almost any 
other tree, itMs^distinguished. 
The R.N.-Y.’s specimen is now 
22 feet high with a diameter 
of 18 feet near the ground. 
The movements of the 
branches of this tree from 
year to year have been 
watched with much interest. 
What at one time were pend¬ 
ulous branches are now hori- 
zonial or even perpendicular, 
while some of those that were 
formerly upright have as¬ 
sumed various degrees of pen- 
dulosity. It is a tree that 
doesn’t seem to know its own 
mind, or perhaps, it might 
better be said, a tree the 
various parts of which delight 
in showing their independ¬ 
ence of each other. 
In 1881 this tree was 12 feet 
high. The first winter after 
it was received from the nur- 
seiy the leading (only up¬ 
right) branch was killed back 
so that only pendulous bran¬ 
ches remained, and these 
drooped in a direction almost 
parallel with the main stem. 
It was assumed that the next 
leader would come from the 
growth of some of the top¬ 
most buds. 
The next year very 
little growth was made; 
but the third year it was no¬ 
ticed that one of the top 
branches was changing from 
its pendulous position towards 
a perpendicular. It continued 
to rise until the fall of the 
leaf when it was found to 
have moved through an arc 
of at least 60 degrees. The 
next year it assumed full 
leadership and a slight bend 
in the trunk is now the only 
evidence that this interesting 
change ever occurred. 
