The Field and Garden Vegetables of America Part 37

The Bush Summer Crookneck is generally esteemed the finest of the summer varieties. It is used only while young and tender, or when the skin can be easily pierced or broken by the nail. After the fruit hardens, the flesh becomes watery, coa.r.s.e, strong flavored, and unfit for table use.

On account of the dwarfish character of the plants, the hills may be made four feet apart. Three plants will be sufficient for a hill.

EARLY WHITE BUSH SCOLLOPED.

White Pattypan. Cymbling. White Summer Scolloped. Pattison Blanc. _Vil._

This is a sub-variety of the Early Yellow Bush Scolloped. The plant has the same dwarf habit, and the fruit is nearly of the same size and form. The princ.i.p.al distinction between the varieties consists in the difference of color.

By some, the white variety is considered a little inferior in fineness of texture and in flavor to the yellow; though the white is much the more abundant in the markets. Both of the varieties are hardy and productive; and there is but little difference in the season of their maturity.

In the month of June, large quant.i.ties are s.h.i.+pped from the Southern and Middle States to the North and East, where they antic.i.p.ate from two to three weeks the products of the home-market gardens; the facilities afforded by steam transportation rendering nearly profitless the efforts of gardeners to obtain an early crop. As the variety keeps well, and suffers little from transportation, the squashes are generally found fresh and in good order on their arrival.

EARLY YELLOW BUSH SCOLLOPED.

Cymbling. Pattypan. Yellow Summer Scollop.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Early Yellow Bush Scolloped.]

Plant dwarf, of rather erect habit, and about two feet and a half in height; leaves large, clear-green; fruit somewhat of a hemispherical form, expanded at the edge, which is deeply and very regularly scolloped. When suitable for use, it measures about five inches in diameter, and three inches in depth; but, when fully matured, the diameter is often ten or twelve inches, and even upwards. Color yellow; skin, while young, thin, and easily pierced,--at maturity, hard and sh.e.l.l-like; flesh pale-yellow, tolerably fine-grained, and well flavored,--not, however, quite so dry and sweet as that of the Summer Crookneck; seeds broader in proportion to their length than the seeds of most varieties, and of comparatively small size. Four hundred and twenty-five weigh an ounce.

This variety has been common to the gardens of this country for upwards of a century; during which period, the form and general character have been very slightly, if at all, changed. When grown in the vicinity of the Bush Summer Crookneck, the surface sometimes exhibits the same wart-like excrescences; but there is little difficulty in procuring seeds that will prove true to the description above given.

Like the Summer Crookneck, the scolloped squashes are used while young or in a green state. After the hardening of the skin, or sh.e.l.l, the flesh generally becomes coa.r.s.e, watery, strong-flavored, and unfit for the table.

The hills should be made about four feet apart, and three plants allowed to a hill. Season from the beginning of July to the middle or last of August.

EGG-SQUASH.

Cucurbita ovifera.

An ornamental variety, generally cultivated for its peculiar, egg-like fruit, which usually measures about three inches in length, and two inches or two and a half in diameter. Skin, or sh.e.l.l, white. It is seldom used as an esculent; though, in its young state, the flesh is quite similar in flavor and texture to that of the scolloped varieties.

"If trained to a trellis, or when allowed to cover a dry, branching tree, it is quite ornamental; and, in its ripened state, is quite interesting, and attractive at public exhibitions." Increase of size indicates mixture or deterioration.

"It has been generally supposed, that the Egg-squash was a native of Astrachan, in Tartary. Dr. Loroche included it in a list of plants not natives of Astrachan, but cultivated only in gardens where it is a.s.sociated with such exotics as Indian corn, or maize, with which it was probably introduced directly or indirectly from America. We also learn from Loroche that this species varied in form, being sometimes pear-shaped; that it was sometimes variegated in color with green and white, and the sh.e.l.l served instead of boxes. Here we have plainly indicated the little gourd-like, hard-sh.e.l.led, and variegated squashes that are often cultivated as ornamental plants.

"From these and similar authorities, it is evident that summer squashes were originally natives of America, where so many of them were found in use by the Indians, when the country began to be settled by Europeans."--_Dr. T. W. Harris, in Pennsylvania Farm Journal._

GREEN BUSH SCOLLOPED.

Pattison Vert. _Vil._

Fruit similar in size and form to the Yellow or White Bush Scolloped; skin or sh.e.l.l bottle-green, marbled or clouded with shades of lighter green. It is comparatively of poor quality, and is little cultivated.

GREEN-STRIPED BERGEN.

"Plant dwarf, but of strong and vigorous habit; fruit of small size, bell-shaped; colors dark-green and white, striped.

"An early but not productive sort, little cultivated at the North or East, but grown to a considerable extent for the New-York market. It is eaten both while green and when fully ripe."

LARGE SUMMER WARTED CROOKNECK.

A large variety of the Bush or Dwarf Summer Crookneck. Plant twelve feet and upwards in length, running; fruit of the form of the last named, but of much greater proportions,--sometimes attaining a length of nearly two feet; skin clear, bright yellow, and thickly covered with the prominent wart-like excrescences peculiar to the varieties; flesh greenish-yellow, and of coa.r.s.er texture than that of the Dwarf Summer Crookneck. Hardy and very productive. The hills should be made six feet apart.

ORANGE.

Cucurbita aurantiaca.

Fruit of the size, form, and color of an orange. Though generally cultivated for ornament, and considered more curious than useful, "some of them are the very best of the summer squashes for table use; far superior to either the scolloped or warted varieties." When trained as directed for the Egg-squash, it is equally showy and attractive.

VARIEGATED BUSH SCOLLOPED.

Pattison Panache. _Vil._

Pale yellow, or nearly white, variegated with green. Very handsome, but of inferior quality.

_Autumn and Winter Varieties._--

AUTUMNAL MARROW. _J. M. Ives._

Boston Marrow. Courge de l'Ohio. _Vil._

Plant twelve feet or more in length, moderately vigorous; fruit ovoid, pointed at the extremities, eight or nine inches in length, and seven inches in diameter; stem very large, fleshy, and contracted a little at its junction with the fruit,--the summit, or blossom-end, often tipped with a small nipple or wart-like excrescence; skin remarkably thin, easily bruised or broken, cream-yellow at the time of ripening, but changing to red after harvesting, or by remaining on the plants after full maturity; flesh rich, salmon-yellow, remarkably dry, fine-grained, and, in sweetness and excellence, surpa.s.sed by few varieties. The seeds are large, thick, and pure white: the surface, in appearance and to the touch, resembles glove-leather or dressed goat-skin. About one hundred are contained in an ounce.

In favorable seasons, the Autumnal Marrow Squash will be sufficiently grown for use early in August; and, if kept from cold and dampness, may be preserved till March.

Mr. John M. Ives, of Salem, who was awarded a piece of silver plate by the Ma.s.sachusetts Horticultural Society for the introduction of this valuable variety, has furnished the following statement relative to its origin and dissemination:--

SALEM, Ma.s.s., Feb. 7, 1858.

DEAR SIR,--As requested, I forward you a few facts relative to the introduction of the Autumnal Marrow Squash, the cultivation of which has extended not only over our entire country, but throughout Europe. It succeeds better in England than the Crooknecks; and may be seen in great abundance every season at Covent-Garden Market, in London.

Early in the spring of 1831, a friend of mine from Northampton, in this State, brought to my grounds a specimen of this vegetable, of five or six pounds' weight, which he called "Vegetable Marrow." As it bore no resemblance to the true Vegetable Marrow, either in its form or color, I planted the seeds, and was successful in raising eight or ten specimens. Finding it a superior vegetable, with a skin as thin as the inner envelope of an egg, and the flesh of fine texture, and also that it was in eating early in the fall, I ventured to call it "Autumnal Marrow Squash." Soon a drawing was made, and forwarded, with a description, to the "Horticultural Register" of Fessenden, and also to the "New-England Farmer."

In cultivating this vegetable, I found the fruit to average from eight to nine pounds, particularly if grown on newly broken-up sod or gra.s.s land. From its facility in hybridizing with the tribe of pumpkins, I consider it to be, properly speaking, a fine-grained pumpkin. The first indication of deterioration or mixture will be manifested in the thickening of the skin, or by a green circle or coloring of green at the blossom-end.

More recently, I have been informed, by the gentleman to whom I was indebted for the first specimen, that the seeds came originally from Buffalo, N.Y., where they were supposed to have been introduced by a tribe of Indians, who were accustomed to visit that city in the spring of the year. I have not been able to trace it beyond this. It is, unquestionably, an accidental hybrid.

Yours truly, JOHN M. IVES.