Saturday, February 18, 2017

1892 - Samuel Wilson, Seedsman, Takes Umbrage

1892 catalog


Before modern social media there were opportunities for people to publicly disagree in mean and petty ways...only it took a month between volleys.  

 Samuel Wilson seems to have pushed the limits of "creative selling" too far for the editor of The Rural New Yorker.  This review of Wilson's 1892 seed catalog shows the already present dislike for Wilson's misleading exaggerations. 



SAMUEL WILSON, Mechanicsville, Bucks County, PA.—A large catalogue of 112 pages of seeds, etc. 
...
Yes, it was on pink paper.
Some years ago Mr. Wilson took exception to some of our criticisms regarding his catalogue and therefore cut our acquaintance. Still, however, his catalogue comes for review. On the cover of the present edition is the statement that the present catalogue is a price list of “garden, field and flower seeds grown and sold” on his seed farm. 

We would ask Mr. Wilson if that is not a falsehood. On page 3 is an illustration of a plant of Modoc Corn “drawn from Nature on the field where it grew.” “The stalks grow to a medium height of seven to eight feet.” The illustration “drawn from Nature in the field” shows a plant five inches tall. The ears (five in number) average two inches long. Therefore, the proportion of reduction being accurate, these ears must have been two fifths as long as the plant was tall. In other words the ears averaged at least three feet long. 




On page 73 he speaks of the Washington Climbing Blackberry as bearing “the most delicious fruit” and as being “perfectly hardy in any climate.” This has been under trial at the Rural Grounds for a number of years. The canes are not hardy even in moderate seasons, the fruit is of inferior quality. Mr. Wilson gives the size of the berries as 1(illegible fraction) inch long by 1(illegible fraction) inch in diameter. The berries of THE R. N.-Y. specimen would not average an inch in length.  
On page 112 of his catalogue he alludes to THE R. N.-Y. as a “so-called agricultural paper”, “to show how much reliance can be placed on this agricultural journal” ,“so excited the ire of this wonderful paper” etc.— quotations which may serve to show our readers that Mr. Wilson is not yet ready to accept our criticisms as having been made for his benefit as well as in the interests of the seed-buying public.

Mr. Wilson's had indeed trashed The Rural New Yorker, weaving his derision into a rabbit article!  Samuel Wilson's catalog also sold poultry and rabbits. 

To read the article click on the rabbit for the larger image.



Samuel Wilson's reply to the bad review appeared the following month in The Rural New-Yorker, prefaced by the editor, of course!

MR. SAMUEL WILSON, the seedsman of Mechanicsville, Bucks County, Pa., seems not to have lost his temper while reading our review of his catalogue— page 119, February 20. 
 Here is his reply in his own words, punctuation and orthography :
“Ed. chief R. N. YORKER. Dear sir. “please accept thanks for recent coppy “RURAL. N. YORKER, containing criticism on my 92 catalog.  will you kindly inform me if you were sober when writing said criticism and about what time in the day it was written.
Yours Resy        SAMUEL WILSON.
P. S. How did you enjoy your vacation at the Water gap, Pa., last summer.         you seemed to be troubled “with a marning headache".    Try Keelys gold cure. - S. W.”
It is just as well, perhaps, that Mr. Wilson should make merry over our review of his catalogue as that he should assume to be indignant and essay to justify what is manifestly unjustifiable.
Still, it may happen with him (if he hopes to continue his business), as it has happened with others, that he will one day have occasion to regard THE R. N.-Y.'s well-meant criticisms from a more serious point of view.    The editor of THE R. N.-Y. has not visited the Delaware Water Gap since the summer of 1887. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .


1876 - Samuel Wilson, Exuberant Seedsman, Bucks County, Pennsylvania

Samuel Wilson's ads are delightfully odd.  He was a showman, and his claims and ad styles reflect this.    His Mole Tree ad caught my attention right away for a previous post!  

Personally, I think sticking a face in the center of the flower is sort of creepy.


This next ad, which you probably can't read any better than I can, is included as an example of the DENSE style of ad. How many words can you squeeze into your space??!!

This next melon was a mystery to me...melons all winter??  I didn't know some melons "keep", like winter squashes I guess.  There was another winter melon called Santa Claus :-)
 I did read that chickens would find the seeds a treat during the winter, and the melons also made nice "conserves" (jam).  


I can't leave out the potato that was "Beautiful as an oil painting"!!


Nonetheless, he was a large business and was one of the seedsman that exhibited at the Columbian Exposition in 1893.  He was reported as planning to show over a "hundred different types of corn or ear, over 50 varieties of wheat and hundreds of flower seeds".


Below is an excerpt from a family history.


SAMUEL WILSON, dealer in and grower of all kinds of seeds, P. O. Mechanicsville, was born in Buckingham township, in 1824, and is a son of Samuel and Hannah (Longstreth) Wilson.

He is descended on the paternal side from ancestors who originally came from Yorkshire, England, and who for several generations have been members of the Society of Friends.
...
Samuel Wilson was reared on the farm, and when 21 years of age engaged in the mercantile business at Newtown. Five years later he returned and in 1852 built a house on the original tract of land. The same year he was married to Maria Webster, née Burger, by whom he had three children, all living: Samuel Howard, William E. and Mary Elizabeth.
...
In the spring of 1876 be commenced the business of growing seeds, which he has carried on extensively. In 1885 he built a larger seed-house, and erected a three-story stone building, 35 by 60 feet. He employs a large number of hands, and has sale for seeds in all parts of the world. 


His establishment is one of the largest of its kind in this part of the country.
...
Mr. Wilson has served as school director nine years. He is an intelligent and enterprising citizen.

edited by J.H. Battle; A. Warner & Co.; 1887.



His successors didn't last long! They kept Samuel Wilson's  name and added "Company" to it.



For those of you who may have come to this page for more ancestry information about Samuel Wilson, here is what I edited out:
The first emigrants of the name came to America about 1683, and settled in Bucks county, and in New Jersey, opposite Bristol and Morrisville.
The first of the family in Buckingham township was Samuel Wilson, the great-grandfather of the subject of this sketch, who was born in Bucks county, January 6, 1706. He moved to Buckingham and took up a large tract of land extending to the Delaware river, and in 1731 built the older portion of the two storied stone house, near the present village of Mechanicsville. In 1729 he married Rebecca, the ninth child of Thomas Canby, whose ancestors also came from Yorkshire, England, and to this marriage were born thirteen children. Of these, the tenth, Stephen, born in 1749, remained upon the original homestead and married Sarah Blackfan, to whom were born eight children.

Of these, the second, Samuel, born in 1785, married Hannah Longstreth, and was the father of the subject of this sketch. The mother of the present Samuel Wilson was a granddaughter of Bartholomew Longstreth, who was born in Yorkshire, England, in 1679, and emigrated to Pennsylvania in 1698. He belonged to the Society of Friends, and in 1727 married Ann Dawson, who was born in London and came to America in 1710. By her he had eleven children.


The eleventh child, Benjamin, married Sarah Fussel, daughter of Solomon Fussel, and to this marriage were born twelve children, of whom the ninth child, Hannah, born in 1791, married Samuel Wilson, and had eight children, of whom but two are living: Samuel, and Margaret O., wife of Elias Paxson, of Solebury.
above: History of Bucks County, Pennsylvania: Including an Account of Its Original Exploration, Its Relation to the Settlements of New Jersey and Delaware, Its Erection Into a Separate County, Also Its Subsequent Growth and Development, with Sketches of Its Historic and Interesting Localities, and Biographies of Many of Its Representative Citizens

Friday, February 17, 2017

1893 - Columbian Exposition Seed Exhibits

My old friends...
Liberty Hyde Bailey wrote this review of the Columbian Exposition Seed Exhibits.  

I have a fondness for his writing as the first serious horticultural reference book I bought was his Standard Cyclopedia. Before the internet you felt well armed with this set of fat reference books!
The very weight of them gave you confidence you would find what you needed within their covers.


Interestingly, the great majority of his article documents the French display of Vilmorin-Andrieux & Co..  It is obvious Bailey respects their careful and scientific displays.  Most American states had displays that were charming, but were simply "floral" arrangements of seeds and agricultural products.  













The Columbian Exposition.
The Seed Exhibits in the Agricultural Building.

THE seed exhibits are divided between the Horticultural and Agricultural Buildings. In the latter, the field-seeds are supposed to be shown to the greater or less exclusion of garden or horticultural seeds. 

The exhibits of individual firms are not many, being comprised mainly in about seven entries. Nearly every state exhibit displays a variety of seeds and grains, but these are shown as purely agricultural products rather than as seed-merchants‘ supplies.

The exhibits in the Horticultural and Agricultural Buildings possess a decided similarity in general design, comprising heavy seeds in bags with a glass pane inserted in the top, small seeds placed in fancy bottles or deep glass trays, and collections of casts of varieties or types of vegetables. 
 The embellishments are usually produced by colored hangers, as banners, chromos and decorations of grains or grasses. As a whole, there is nothing unusually novel or striking in them, and they impress the visitor quite as much with their bulk or arrangement as with any useful facts which they may be supposed to teach. 

This wall decorated using grains and grasses!
Unquestionably the best seedsman's display, from an educational standpoint, is that of Vilmorin-Andrieux & Co., of Paris, in the French section of the Agricultural Building. It is different in character from all other seed exhibits in the fact that it makes no great display of mere bulk, but looks more like a section in a well-ordered botanical museum. The space devoted to this exhibit is something like twenty-five by seventy feet, enclosed by a wall or partition about ten feet high, lined with deep red cloth. These walls are hung with panels of wheat, illustrations of the farms and buildings of the firm, specimen charts showing the sugar yield of beets, and the starch yield of potatoes, and other features calculated to fasten the attention of intelligent visitors. 


One side or counter of the apartment is occupied by fourteen glass cases which contain models or casts of many representative types of vegetables and strawberries. Disposed at intervals upon the floor are swing frames and albums of lithographs of various plants, and the centre is occupied by a modest table of vegetable and flower seeds. Everything is labeled with scrupulous neatness and accuracy, and one feels that the exhibit will bear careful study.

This is NOT the Columbian Exposition, but gives an idea of Vilmorin style of display perhaps.
Save a small collection of photographs in the alcoves of the Experiment Stations’ exhibits, in the same building, here seems to be the only attempt at the Fair to show any of the results of hybridization. The name of Vilmorin has long been connected with experiments in the crossing of Wheats, and some of the graphic results are here shown in small sheaves mounted upon tastefully framed green felt.
 The casts of which there are several hundred, represent the average or normal forms of vegetables rather than unusual or gigantic specimens, and they are the best models of garden vegetables to be seen in the Exposition. They are made of a hard composition and will bear handling. It is evident, in the character of the models and their arrangements in the cases, that their first value is a scientific one in showing the variation of plants and fixing upon a conventional standard ort pe for the chief lines of development, rather than a mere display of what the firm may have to sell. The visitor will miss some of the common American vegetable types from the collection, particularly all forms of Maize, and of the large fruits which we designate as pumpkins; but he will notice others which are comparatively new to him, as the winter muskmelons, various broad beans, the long or ridge cucumbers, mammoth blanched asparagus, and an excellent display of sugar-beets. 
Nice link...
A couple of the specimen charts are unique. One comprises six glass tubes about an inch in diameter and five feet long, containing proportionate amounts of "sugar in the juice" and refined sugar in the six leading sugar-beets. The greatest yield of refined sugar is something over sixty hundred-weight per acre in the French, while the lowest is only fifty-four hundred-weight in the Gray top. Between these are, in order, Green-top, Brabant, Vilmorin's Improved, Klein Wanzleben and Early Red Skin. 
A similar method of exhibition shows the starch-yield from ten varieties of potatoes, the figures running, per acre, as follows : Giant Blue, 76.7 cwt. ; Imperator, 63.2 ; Giant Nonpareil, 48.6; Reading Giant, 42.6; Juno, 41.9 ; Aspasia, 37.5; American Wonder, 36.9; Red-skinned Flour-ball, 30.4; White Elephant, 28.2; Reading Russet, 26.7. 
Altogether, the exhibit is just such an one as a teacher of economic botany or horticulture might be supposed to collect for museum purposes.

This style of exhibit is what one expects if he knows the history of the firm which has made it. Vilmorin-Andrieux & Co. is probably the best example of a firm which combines in successful proportions the scientific and commercial impulses, and it is the only seed firm whose opinions upon scientific questions are accepted by professional botanists. 
It has been identified with botany from its inception. The exact foundation of the firm is unknown, but it is certain that in 1745 Pierre Andrieux was botanist and seedsman to Louis XV., and was in business on the Quai de la Mégisserie, in Paris, the same thoroughfare upon which the present firm is located.
 Phillipe Victoire Levéque de Vilmorin, the youngest son of a nobleman who was reduced in circumstances through the wars, came to Paris to seek his fortune, intending to practice medicine. He fell in with the botanist Duchesne, however, and became acquainted with Andrieux, and he gave up medicine for botany. In 1774 he married the daughter of Andrieux, and upon the death of the latter, in 1781, the firm became known as Vilmorin-Andrieux.  
lt acquired a national reputation under this first Vilmorin, and its influence and business relations have increased from that day to this. The elder Vilmorin died in 1804, previous to which time his son, Pierre Phillipe Andre, became a partner in the business. This son established comparative field tests of plants, and he introduced many of the trees and shrubs collected in North America by his friend, the eminent botanist Michaux. He established an arboretum, rich in American Oaks, which, after his death in 1862, the French Government made the foundation of a national school of forestry. He retired from business as early as 1845, and left the house in the hands of his eldest son, Louis Levéque de Vilmorin. Louis gave much attention to the subject of heredity in plants, and his writings in this direction are still well known to scientists. His name is also identified with the amelioration of the Sugar-beet. He died in 1860, at the age of 44, and his widow assumed a great part of the management of the business. 
The house is now in the hands of the two sons of Louis, Henri L. and Maurice L. de Vilmorin, the latter of whom is secretary of the French horticultural division of the Columbian Exposition. A young son of Henri has lately appeared before the public in the excellent little book, The Flowers of Paris. The botanical and horticultural publications of the Vilmorins are numerous and they form a prominent feature in the exhibit at the Fair.

Other seed exhibitors in the Agricultural Building are Peter Henderson & Co., Albert Dickinson & Co., of Chicago,  Samuel Wilson, Mechanicsville, Pennsylvania, James Riley, Thomastown, Indiana, The Whitney-Noyes Seed Co., and E. W. Conklin & Son, both of Binghamton, New York. These are almost exclusively field seeds, except that of Henderson, in which are shown models of the larger or coarser vegetables, as turnips, squashes, mangels and the like. Henderson & Co. also show a good line of tree seeds. A novel feature of this display is a collection of botanical specimens of the grasses and sedges used by Henderson in his lawn grass mixtures.

L. H. Bailey, Chicago, Ill.

Garden and Forest: A Journal of Horticulture, Landscape Art and...- Volume 6


Links: 
1893 - Seven Seedsman at the Columbian Exposition This post contains many nice stereo views of the Agricultural Building, and information about the seedsmen named above.

Sunday, February 12, 2017

1893 - Samuel Wilson's Mole-Tree!


I love the outrageous claims you can find in old seed catalogs!  And when it is accompanied by a great illustration my day is complete.

The mole to the right has been edited by me...Samuel Wilson wasn't that tacky...but he was wasn't afraid to make a definitive statement!

It seems he rubbed a number of reviewers the wrong way, however, with his claims in this 1893 catalog.



THE MOLE TREE OR MOLE PLANT 
The Mole Plant is not only desirable for ornamental purposes, but highly valuable and useful to plant in gardens or lawns infested with moles. Every one knows the trouble and loss caused by these destructive little animals, especially in the vegetable or flower garden, as well as in borders and walks.

The Mole Plant is a sure remedy for this evil. A few plants set out in places infested by moles will drive them away and keep your garden entirely clear of this troublesome pest. 
This fact has been proved in hundreds of cases where moles have been so troublesome as to almost ruin vegetable and garden plants. On our own grounds we made a thorough experiment with this valuable plant he past Summer. We had a row of a dozen planted on a piece of ground which, for years previous, had been so infested with moles as to make it almost impossible to raise a crop of anything we planted. We tried every means by trapping, poisoning, etc, and even hired a man to watch them while making their runs, so as to dig them out with a fork or spade. But all this did not seem to diminish the moles. For every one destroyed, two more came in its place.

We finally gave it up in despair until we accidentally heard of this wonderful Mole Plant. It seemed to work like a charm. The small trees were planted in the Spring and our closest observation could not discover any signs of a mole within sixty feet of these trees the whole season through. On other parts of our grounds the moles were as thick and as destructive as ever. But the grounds where these trees were planted were entirely clear of moles.  
We intend to plant then largely another year, and would recommend our customers who are troubled with moles to try this simple remedy, as it costs but little and will save them much. Half a dozen or a dozen trees would keep an ordinary size garden free from moles and save much vexation and loss.  
The plant is a biennial and easily raised from seeds which must be sown in the Fall. Besides in great value in this way, it is quite an ornamental plant ; grows to the height of two to two and one-half feet, in a perfect tree-like form, with neat and attractive foliage.
Plants, by mall, post-paid, each, 15c: 2 for 25c; 5 for 50c; doz., $1.00.


Below are some responses the ad elicited. The first is the best!   The second fills you in on more detail than you want, which can be a good thing in the long run, plus it also slams this flim-flam style of advertising.

AMONG the “novelties” which we find in the catalogue of Samuel Wilson, of Mechanicsville, Pa., is “The Mole Tree or Mole Plant.”  An illustration shows a round-headed tree loaded with fruit which seem to be about the size of apples. Beside this beautiful little tree lies a dead mole. We assume that he is dead because, first, he is lying on his back with his legs up, and, second, because he lies within a few feet of the deadly tree. 
Mr. Wilson says that a dozen trees (they grow to a height of less than three feet) “would keep an ordinary sized garden free from moles.” He says, “the plant is a biennial and easily raised from seed.” Mr. Wilson, however, fails to allude to the fine fruit borne by the tree, and he further omits to mention its botanical name or to intimate in any way to what order it belongs.
The Rural New-Yorker 1893


THE MOLE-PLANT.— Euphorbia Lathyris.


The horticultural community was interested last spring in the announcement of Samuel Wilson, of Mechanicsville, Penn., that he had a plant which will drive moles from the garden. This plant, although said to be biennial, was called the Mole-Tree, and the account was verified by the picture, which shows a diminutive tree beneath which lies the corpse of a mole.

Nothing is said by the introducer about the origin, nativity or botanical affinities of the plant. We were able to secure but one plant of the Mole-Tree, and we were so choice of it that it has been grown in the greenhouse. It turns out to be an interesting old garden plant, which has a continuous history of at least three hundred years, and which was known as a medicinal plant to Galen in the second century. It is the Caper Spurge, Euphorbia Lathyris. The name Spurge is applied to many related plants, in reference to their purgative qualities, and this particular species is called Caper Spurge from the fact that the little seed-like fruits are sometimes used as a substitute for capers. The plant is known chiefly as a household medicine, although it is used in materia medica and is figured by Millspaugh in his recent work upon American Medicinal Plants. Its use as a food plant seems, fortunately, to have ceased. Johnson, in Sowerby's Useful Plants of Great Britain, 1862, speaks of this use of it as follows: “The three-celled capsules are about the size of a large caper, and are often used as a substitute for that condiment, but are extremely acrid, and not fit to eat till they have been long macerated in salt and water and afterwards in vinegar ; indeed it may be doubted whether they are wholesome even in that state.”

This plant is a native of Europe, but it has long been an inhabitant of old gardens in this country, and it has run wild in some of the eastern states. Its use as a mole repeller is not recent. 

Pursh, in writing of the plant in 1814, in his Flora of North America, says that 
“It is generally known in America by the name of Mole-plant, it being supposed that no moles disturb the ground where this plant grows.” 
Darlington makes a similar statement in Flora Cestrica, 1837 :
 “This foreigner has become naturalized about many gardens,— having been introduced under a notion that it protected them from the incursions of moles.” 
In later botanies it is frequently called Moleplant.

I do not know if there is any foundation for these repeated statements that the Caper Spurge is objectionable to moles, but the fact that the notion is old and widespread raises a presumption that the plant may possess such attributes. The statement occurs only in American works, so far as I know. It would be interesting to know the experiences of those who have grown the plant for a number of years, for the subject is worth investigation.  

We cannot too strongly deprecate the practice of introducing plants to the public without giving purchasers definite knowledge of their history and nature, and without having detailed proof that the plants possess the virtues which are claimed for them. It would have been better in the present example, no doubt, to have submitted the plant to a botanist before introducing it, in order that its proper name and history might have been determined; and if the public is at all inclined to buy a moleplant it would have been persuaded much more by the long tradition of its virtues than by any consequential statement of its value.

The Caper Spurge is apparently biennial, although Boissier, a celebrated monographer of the euphorbias, calls it annual. The plant is very unlike in its early and flowering stages. Until it begins to branch and flower, the leaves are long linear-lanceolate, opposite, and arranged in four perfect rows down the thick, smooth stem. As this stage of the plant is rarely illustrated or described, I have introduced here a photograph of our Mole-plant as it appeared eight months after its receipt from Mr. Wilson. It was placed horizontally and an end view was taken in order to show the serial arrangement of leaves. The plant is exceedingly curious and interesting, and we shall grow it in our greenhouses as an ornamental subject. Few plants have a more novel or striking appearance. In its second or flowering stage, the leaves are ovate and shorter. 

Mr. Wilson writes me that he knew this plant in old gardens more than fifty years ago, where it had a reputation for expelling moles, but he lost sight of it until a short time since, when he again met with the plant. It was then propagated and introduced to the public.

1894 - Annual Report of the Agricultural Experiment Station, Volume 6

Sunday, November 27, 2016

1855 - Thaddeus William Harris, Entomologist and All-around Squash Lover

(I am amused to think of all the people who would find the idea of an "enjoyable squash article from 1855" hilarious...)
When I was working my way through transcribing for online reading the E. Lewis Sturtevant series of articles called The History of Vegetables, I kept finding interesting articles that gave depth to the history by showing how involved, passionate even, people were with the new varieties. 

I found this article in The Farm Journal and Progressive Farmer  quoting a long letter by Thaddeus William Harris enjoyable to read so here it is!  He is careful to mention other books and articles he uses, leading the reader into other works worth a look.



Treatise on Some Insects
 Injurious to Vegetation
by Thaddeus William Harris
T.W. entered Harvard at age 16 in 1811, and later, among his many other projects, spent more than a decade involved with silkworms as the textile industry had dreams of silk plantations.  
 "For six years, he also taught natural history in Harvard College―Henry David Thoreau was one of his students―but his desire for a full-time professorship was never realized. He is chiefly remembered as a naturalist and is generally considered the "founder of applied entomology" in the United States." 
-C. A. Elliot (See end of post for source.)

I have broken up the printed version's paragraphs to make them easier to read online, and also bulleted some lists. Illustrations added as well.


Pumpkins and Squashes

We know of no vegetable genus in which there is so much confusion of names and characters among cultivators, as the Pumpkin and Squash tribe, or Cucurbita of Botanists. Their common names have so multiplied, that a farmer wishing to grow some for his stock, or his table, can hardly tell what to ask for at the seed stores, or what will be the character of his crops when obtained.

Knowing that T. W. Harris, the distinguished Entomologist of Massachusetts, had been paying special attention to this subject, with the view to some reliable and scientific classification, we addressed him the following queries, to which he has most kindly responded.

To The Editor Of The Farm Journal : 



—In your communication, you request to be informed what is "the distinction, if any, between the Boston and Vegetable Marrow Squash, also between the Connecticut Field Pumpkin and the Cheese Pumpkin; what is the Valparaizo Squash, and is it a desirable variety;  what are the distinctive marks of the Winter and Summer Crook-neck Squash, Early Egg or Apple Squash, Pattypan Squash, Turban Squash, Cashaw Pumpkin, Mammoth Pumpkin, Acorn Squash; what are the correct names and synonymous of these kinds; which of them is most valued in Now England for pumpkin pies, and which for stock and field culture?"

In September, 1834, Mr. John M. Ives, of Salem, Mass., exhibited in Faneuil Hall, Boston, a new squash, to which he subsequently gave the name of the "Autumnal Marrow Squash." It was figured and described in Fessenden's New England Farmer, vol. XIII, No. 16, Oct. 29, 1834, page 122, and again in Fessenden and Tescheinacher's Horticultural Register, vol. I, No. 3, March, 1836, page 93.   This fruit thus introduced and brought into notice, soon became a great favorite, and has ever since been extensively cultivated for table use, as a sauce and for pies, in the vicinity of Boston. 

So popular has it become in the market of Boston that it may well be called "the Boston Squash," though I never heard that name applied to it.  Mr. Ives, in his description of it, called it a variety of Cucurbita melopepo, which is an error.   If not a mere variety of Commodore Porter's Valparaiso Squash, it doubtless descended from the same stock as the latter.  

 It must not be confounded with the kind cultivated in England under the name of "Vegetable Marrow," a very poor vegetable, as I am assured by friends who have eaten it in London, and apparently one of the sorts which in New England would be called Summer Squashes. 

The "Autumnal Marrow" is eaten only when fully ripe; the "Vegetable Marrow," like your "Cymlings,' is eaten only in unripe state. The former comes into eating in September, but may be kept with care till March. 



When pure or unmixed by crossing with other kinds, it is considered as the very best autumnal and winter squash in New England.  

Many cultivators have allowed it to degenerate or become mixed with the larger and grosser Valparaiso, so that we do not often find it in entire purity in our markets.   It generally has only three double rows of seeds.  

 For a description of it, see the works before cited, also Cole's New England Farmer, vol. I, No. 12, May 26, 1849, p. 185.


I am not sure what is the fruit denominated Connecticut Field Pumpkin, and the Cheese Pumpkin is unknown to me except by its name in catalogues.

The Valparaizo Squashes, of which there seem to be several varieties, known to cultivators by many different names, some of them merely local in their application, belong to a peculiar group of the genus Cucurbita, the distinguishing characters of which have not been fully described by botanists.  The word squash as applied to these fruits is a misnomer, as may be shown hereafter; it would be well to drop it entirely, and to call the fruits of this group pompions, pumpkins, or potirons. 

It is my belief that they were originally indigenous to the tropical and subtropical parts of the western coast of America; they are extensively cultivated from Chili to California, and also in the West Indies, whence enormous specimens are sometimes brought to the Atlantic States. 

How much soever these Valparaizo pumpkins may differ in form, size, color, and quality, they all agree in certain peculiarities that are found in no other species or varieties of Cucurbita. 

  • Their leaves are never deeply lobed like those of other pumpkins and squashes, but are more or less five-angled, or almost rounded, and heart shaped at base; 
  • they are also softer than those of other pumpkins and squashes. 
  • The summit or blossom-end of the fruit has a nipple-like projection upon it, consisting of the permanent fleshy stile. 
  • The fruit-stalk is short, nearly cylindrical, never deeply five furrowed, but merely longitudinally striated or wrinkled, and never clavated or enlarged with projecting angles next to the fruit. 
  • With few exceptions, they contain four or five double row of seeds. 
To this group belong 

  • Mr. Ives' Autumnal Marrow squash (or pumpkin) before named,
  • Commodore Porter's Valparaizo squash (pumpkin), the so called
  • Mammoth pumpkin or Cucurbita maxima of the botanists, 
  • the Turban squash or Acorn squash, Cucurbita piliformis of Duchesne,
  • the Cashew pumpkin, 
  • Cole's Connecticut pie squash, 
  • Stetson's Cuba squash, and his hybrid called the Wilder squash, with various others.


The variety introduced from Valparaizo by Commodore Porter, became known to me about the year 1830, since which time it has been more or less cultivated in New England both for the table and for stock.   It is of an oblong oval shape, of a pale reddish yellow color externally when ripe, nearly smooth, and very slightly furrowed, and often grows to a large size. It readily mixes with the Autumnal Marrow, but is inferior to it in quality.  
It may prove better and more valuable in the Middle and Southern States than in New England.
(Commodore David Porter, was famous for his escapades in the Pacific against the British during the War of 1812. There are many opinions of his actions.)
This is the plate referred to below.
The Turban, sometimes called also the Acorn squash, because when the fruit is small it resembles somewhat an acorn in its cup, seems to be the Cucurbita piliformis of Duchesne. The middle lower figure of the group on page 283 of the volume on "Timber Trees and Fruits," in the "Library of Entertaining Knowledge," seems intended for the Turban squash.

 It sometimes grows to a large size, measuring 14 or 15 inches, in transverse diameter, and looks like an immense Turkish turban in shape.  Specimens raised in my garden in 1851 were little more than ten inches in diameter,  and weighed ten pounds or more, having very thick and firm flesh, and but a small cavity within. They proved excellent for table use, equal in quality to the best Autumnal Marrows. They keep quite as well as the latter.

The earliest account of the Cashew pumpkin that has fallen under our notice, is contained in the English translation of Du Pratz's History of Louisiana, (vol. II, p. 8), where it is called Cushaw.  In the original French work, the name given to it is Giromon. 
Du Pratz described two varieties; one round, and the other curved, or of the shape of a hunter's horn. The latter was considered the best.  (Read Du Pratz's description of his first experience with watermelons; makes your mouth water!)

The Cushaw or Cashew pumpkin is not cultivated or much known in New England. I raised some specimens of the crooknecked variety, (which has only three double rows of seeds), a few years ago, from seeds received from New Jersey. They did not ripen well, and many of them rotted before half ripe. They are evidently too tender for a New England climate. From the account given of them by Du Pratz, they seem well suited to Louisiana, where they are much esteemed. See his work.
1774 - Le Page du Pratz
The genuine Mammoth pumpkin, or true Potiron (Cucurbita maxima), may be considered as the typical species of this group, having rather soft, roundish heart-shaped, and entire leaves, a short cylindrical fruit stem, a permanent flesh stile, and five carpels or double row of seeds. The form of the fruit is an oblate spheroid, depressed at the blossom an stem ends, and marked with ten or more wide meridianal furrows. It sometimes grows to an immense size, two feet or more in diameter, and sixty pounds or more in weight being light in proportion to its size, on account of the large hollow within. 

It is known to vary much in color and size and somewhat in form. In some of its variations, it may have lost its original characteristic form, so far as to be no longer recognized. If this be true, Cole's Connecticut pie squash, the round Valparaiso squashes, and several others may be merely varieties of the Mammoth pumpkin. To some of the varieties of this fruit the name Giromon or Giromont, otherwise written Giraumon and Giraumont, signifying a rolling mountain, seems originally to have been applied, in allusion to the form and size. French writers subsequently transferred this name to certain varieties of the Cucurbita pepo.

The plants of the foregoing Valparaizo, or Potiron group, are more tender and less hardy than those of the common pumpkin or Pepo group; they are also much more subject to the attacks of worms or borers (Aegeria cucurbita) at the roots. Their fruits, compared with common pumpkins and winter squashes, have a thinner and more tender rind, and finer grained, sweeter and less strongly flavored flesh, on which accounts they are preferred by most persons for table use.



Fearing Burr
The second group contains the 
  • common New England field pumpkin, 
  • Bell-shaped and 
  • Crook-necked Winter squashes, 
  • the Early Canada Winter squash, 
  • the Custard squash, 
and various others, all of which (whether rightly or not cannot now be determined,) have been generally referred by botanists to the Cucurbita pepo of Linnaeus. 

This group is readily to be distinguished from the first one by the following charcters. 
  • The leaves are rough, and more or less deeply and acutely five-lobed. 
  • The fruit has only three carpels or double row of seeds, and the stile drops off with the blossom. 
  • The fruit stem is long, and clavated or enlarged next the fruit, where it spreads out into five claw-like projections; and is five-angled and deeply five-furrowed. 
  • The fruit is eaten only when fully ripe, and it may be kept with care throughout the winter. 
  • The rind, though sometimes quite hard, never becomes a woody shell, and the flesh remains juicy and succulent till it rots, never drying up into a spongy or fibrous substance, in which respects these fruits differ from what are called Summer squashes. 
  • The seeds are not so broad, thick or plump, and white as those of the potiron group, but are smaller, thinner, and of a greyish color.
The common field pumpkin of New England, which formerly was extensively raised for stock, and is still used for the same purpose, and of which our pumpkin pies and pumpkin sauce were made, till the winter crook-neck and autumnal marrow came to be substituted therefor, 
(The common field pumpkin of New England) has a form 

  • somewhat resembling that of the mammoth pumpkin, but its
  • longitudinal often exceeds its transverse diameter,  
  • its color is of a deeper yellow or orange, 
  • the furrows on its surface not so deep or broad, 
  • and its rind much thicker and in some varieties quite hard.    
  • Its flesh is rather coarse, of a deep orange yellow color,
  • and of a peculiar strong odor.    

(Have you noticed how long sentences were in the 19th century?!  I thought Sturtevant was the winner but this dude is right up there!)


Mills - 1904

Baked pumpkin and milk, pumpkin sauce, and dried pumpkin for winter use have had their day, and gone out of fashion; and pumpkin pies are now mostly made of the autumnal marrow and crook-necked winter squashes, except by some of the old folks, who still prefer the pumpkin, baked in a milk-pan, and without any pastry.

The New England "crook-neck squash",  as it is commonly but incorrectly called, is a 
kind of pumpkin, perhaps a genuine species, for it has preserved its identity to our certain knowledge ever since the year 1686, when it was described by Ray. 
It has the form and color of the Cashaw, but is easily distinguished therefrom by the want of a persistent stile, and by its clavated (club-shaped; growing gradually thicker toward the top) and furrowed fruit stem.   (You don't see "therefrom" much anymore...)

Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds
Miller Family Crookneck
Before the introduction of the Autumnal Marrow, it was raised in large quantities for table use during the winter, in preference to pumpkins, which it almost entirely superseded. Many farmers now use it instead of pumpkins for cattle; the vine being more productive, and the fruit containing much more nutriment in proportion to its size. 

It varies considerably in form and color. The best kinds are those which are very much curved, nearly as large at the stem as at the blossom end, and of a rich cream color. 
Baker Creek Heriloom Seeds
This is the Canada Crookneck.
Some are green, variegated with cream colored stripes and spots.   

 Some are bell-shaped, or with a very short and straight neck, and are less esteemed than the others; for the neck being solid and of fine texture, is the best part of the fruit. 

These crook-necks can be kept all winter, if not exposed to frost, and I have eaten of them when a year old. 

On account of its hardiness, its fruitfulness, and its keeping qualities, this is perhaps the most valuable variety to the New England farmer. 



It is said to degenerate in the Middle and Southern States, where probably Commodore Porter's Valparaizo or some kindred variety may be better adapted to the climate.

The Early Canada squash seems to be a precocious and dwarfed variety of the common crook-neck. It is smaller, with a short and often straight neck, and is of a dark and lirty buff color externally. It comes into eating early, quite as soon as the autumnal marrow, and was, indeed still is, much esteemed as a table vegetable.

The custard squash or pumpkin is an oblong, deeply furrowed, and prominently ten-ribbed fruit, with a pale buff and very hard (but not woody) rind, and fine, light yellow flesh, much esteemed in the making of pies and puddings. For a figure and description of it, 

see Cole's New England Farmer, Vol. III, No. 4, Feb. 15, 1851, page 59.  (This is not what we might think of as a custard squash nowadays, the patty pan type. Check this one out!)

 (See end of post to read this article he mentions from The New England Farmer, plus another in the same issue.)

From seeds received from Paris, under the name of Patagonian squash, I raised a fruit exactly like the custard squash in form and size, but of a dark green color externally and entirely worthless as an article of food. Nevertheless I iner that the custard squash is merely an improved variety from the same original stock.

The fruits belonging to this second group probably originated in the eastern and central parts of the two Americas. They were cultivated by the Indians, and were found there in their gardens and fields by Europeans on the first settlement of the country. Pumpkins, or bell-shaped squashes as New Englanders would now call them, were found as far north as Saco, by Champlain, in 1605 and 1606. 


A similar variety was cultivated by the Iroquois Indians, and still bears their name in France. Pumpkins were found by Raleigh's Colony among the Indians, in North Carolina, and by early voyagers in the West Indies. There are indigenous kinds in Brazil; and we have seen that even Patagonia has added another to the common stock. 

Cultivation has doubtless improved their qualities, and has caused them to sport  numerous varieties, so that it is now difficult, if not impossible, to determine which of the known kinds are typical species, and which are mere varieties. 

A third group remains to be described. The representatives of it are the Cucurbita melopepo, ferrucosa, and ovifera , of Linnaeus. It includes all those kinds called in New England Summer Squashes, because they are eaten only during the summer, while they are soft and tender, and in an unripe state. 
These are the only two Squashes, if regard be had to the origin of the name, derived from the language of the Massachusetts Indians, by whom, according to Roger Williams, this kind of fruit was called "Askutasquash, which the English from them call Squashes." 

From the same authority, and from other sources, we learn that the Indian of New England
Bonnet de prêtre (Priest's Hat)
cultivated this kind of fruit or vegetable and used it for food; that some of their squashes were "of the bigness of apples, of several colors," while others are represented by Champlain, as being considerably larger, turbinated, and more or less puckered on the margin, and of the same form as that which in France is called
Bonnet de prêtre, probably the prototype of our Scalloped Squash, or Cucurbita melopepo.  


Another older Bonnet de prêtre type





<<< This may be closer to the older form of the Bonnet de prêtre.  






Bartram found a squash vine growing wild in the interior of East Florida, climbing to the tops of the trees, and bearing little yellow squashes of the form and size of an orange. 

Mr. Nuttall informs us, that the warted squash, Cucurbita verrucosa, was "cultivated by the Indian of the Missouri to its sources."  

It has generally been supposed, on the authority of Linnaeus, that the Egg Squash Cucurbita ovifera, was a native of Astrachan in Tartary.  On turning to the account of it given by Dr. Lorche, from whom Linnaeus received his specimens, I find it included in a list of plants, not natives of the vicinity of Astrachan, but cultivated only in gardens, where it is associated with such exotics as Indian corn or Maize, with which it was probably introduced directly or indirectly from America. We also learn from Lorche that this species varied in form, being sometimes pear-shaped; that it was sometimes variegated in color with green and white; and that the shell served instead of little boxes. 

Here we have plainly indicated the little gourd-like, hard-shelled, and variegated squashes, that are often cultivated as ornamental plants. For further account of the Squashes of the North American Indians, Wood's "New England Prospect",  Josselyn's "Rarities," and Vander Donck's "Description of the New Netherlands", may be consulted. From these and similar authorities, we conclude 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.


 >--------------8-------------<
The following is from Vander Donck's "Description of the New Netherlands: 
 The natives have another species of this vegetable peculiar to themselves, called by our people quaasiens, a name derived from the aborigines, as the plant was not known to us before our intercourse with them. It is a delightful fruit, as well to the eye on account of its fine variety of colours, as to the mouth for its agreeable taste. The ease with, which, it is cooked renders it a favourite too with the young women. 
It is gathered early in summer, and when it is planted in the middle of April, the fruit is fit for eating by the first of June. They do not wait for it to ripen before making use of the fruit, but only until it has attained a certain size. They gather the squashes and immediately place them on the fire without any farther trouble.  
When a considerable number have been gathered, they keep them for three or four days; and it is incredible, when one watches the vines, how many will grow on them in the course of a single season. The vines run a little along the ground, some of them only two or three steps; they grow well in newly broken wood-land when it is somewhat cleared and the weeds are removed. 
The natives make great account of this vegetable; some of the Netherlanders too consider it quite good, but others do not esteem it very highly. It grows rapidly, is easily cooked, and digests well in the stomach, and its flavour and nutritive properties are respectable.

 >--------------8-------------<

The Summer Squashes, like the plants belonging to the second group, have acutely five-lobed, rough leaves, and large yellow flowers, a clavated five-angled and five-furrowed fruit stem, and a deciduous stile. Their seeds also resemble those of common pumpkins and winter squashes, but are smaller and thinner, some of them are runners and climbers, others have a dwarf erect habit, and hence are sometimes called "bush squashes." 

They differ from all the foregoing kinds in having when ripe a hard and woody rind or shell to the fruit, with a slimy and fibrous pulp, which when dry become a mere stringy and spongy mass. Hence, these fruits are only eaten while they still remain tender and succulent, and never in a ripe state. On account of their woody shells, they are sometimes mistaken for and miscalled gourds, from which they are not only distinguished by their oval and thin seeds, but by the largeness and yellow color of their flowers, those of gourds being smaller and white, and by their deeply lobed and rough leaves, those of gourds being entire, or at most only slightly angular and downy.

Under the name of Cucurbita melopepo is to be included what in New England is called Scalloped Squash, and in the Middle and Southern States, Cymlings; perhaps the Patty-Pan Squash is another synonym for the same. 


This melopepo is a very broad and thin or compressed fruit, with scallop edges, and more or less warted surface; it ensures often ten or eleven inches in transverse diameter, and three to four from stem to blossom. It varies in form, being sometimes much thicker, and more or less turbinated or top shaped, when it takes the name of Bonnet de pietre or priest's cap; perhaps this is really its original form. Other varieties nearly round, are sometimes seen.

The Cucurbita verrucosa is the cucumber-shaped warted squash, generally with a slightly curved neck. In the West Indies there is a much larger , oblong, ovoid squash, with a somewhat warted surface, which is also referred to the Cucurbita verrucosa. Intermediate between these, there is another, which may be described as pestle-shaped, measuring ten inches or more in length, and quite smooth on the surface. These two kinds, namely the Cucurbita melopepo and C. verrucosa, with all their varieties, are generally of a dwarf habit, with erect stems.

Cucurbita ovifera, with its varieties auriantiaca, the Orange or Apple squash, and the pyriformis or pear-shaped and variegated squashes, has a running or climbing stem. Some of the orange squashes are the very best of the summer squashes for table use, far superior either to the scalloped or warted squashes.

The Vegetable Marrow, as it is called in England, has been considered by botanists as a variety of the Cucurbita ovifera of Linnaeus; if this be correct, cultivation has forced it to a most unnatural size, and has greatly changed its original form. 

T. W. HARRIS.
Additional reading:




ACORN SQUASH.

BY PROFESSOR HARRIS.

Gentlemen :—Permit me to recommend a winter squash, which is new to me, and probably is but little known in this vicinity. The seeds came from Shrewsbury, where the fruit was raised in the summer of 1850, and was there called the acorn squash. Of its origin and history nothing further is known to me. Its characters, as grown in my garden this summer, are these. The vine runs prodigiously, throwing out strong tendrils and even roots from its joints, and enormous leaves, many measuring twenty inches in length, and as much or more in breadth. These leaves are unlike those of the pumpkin and common kinds of winter-squash, being of a rounded.heart-shape, and not divided into lobes, but marked with five rounded scallops on the outer edge, and ending with a very short point in the middle of the largest curve. The smaller leaves, however, which are produced late in the season, near the extremities of the vines, are five angled, or slightly five-lobed. The flowers are wide in the throat, where they grow out of the young fruit, and have at least four and sometimes five stigmas; whereas, in the common pumpkin and winter-squashes, the stigmas are rarely more than three in number. 'When the flowers and the five arrow calyx-leaves drop off, they leave, at the place of their origin, a depressed ring-like scar, of a large diameter, in the centre of which ring there is a little tubercle, formed by the adhering base of the style. In this stage, the fruit somewhat resembles a huge acorn surrounded by its cup, which seems to have suggested the name it bears. As it increases in size, Hie circular ring enlarges also, and, in the full-grown fruit, measures four inches, or more, in diameter, the part within the ring forming the apex of the fruit, growing equally with the rest, and being marked with dark green lines radiating from the little knob at the summit. At maturity, this squash weighs from eight to ten pounds or more, and measures about two feet and eight inches in circumference, and five inches in its shortest diameter, or from the stem to the blossom cud. It is depressed at the stem-end, and from its squat shape, and the singular formation of the upper end, it may be compared to an old-fashioned tea-kettle, the blossom-end with the ring representing the lid. The color of the rind, at first green, subsequently varies from slate-blue, mottled and striped with yellow, to deep yellow. The surface in some is perfectly smooth, or only furrowed and puckered round the top, in others more or less lough, with slight elevations like a nutmeg-grater. The flesh is very thick, firm, and fine-grained, and of a rich orange-color. The carpels or seed-cavities, four and sometimes five in number, contain double ranges of large plump seeds like those of the marrow squash. The fruit-stem, like that of the latter, is short, thick, more or less obliquely inserted, nearly cylindrical, and not five angled, nor deeply furtowed. A good idea of the form of this squash may be got from the middle figure on page 283 of the volume of the "Library of Entertaining Kno-vledge," treating of "Timber-trees and Fruits;" and this figure may have been designed to represent our acorn-squash. In cooking, both when plainly boiled and when made into puddings or pies, this squash fully equals the very best of the marrow squashes.

The vines, like those of the marrow and other delicate squashes, are liable to be attacked by borers at the roots, before the fruit is half grown: and, if neglected at this stage, will almost certainly perish. The remedy, after extracting the borers with a wire, or killing them in their holes, consists in pegging down the vines at the joints with forked sticks, and drawing a little earth around these joints, which will encourage the formation of roots there, whereby the whole vine will be sustained, even after its original roots have been nearly destroyed. 

Yours, truly, H.
For the New England Farmer.





CUSTARD SQUASH.


For the New England Farmer.
 Mr. Cole:—Having raised this squash, the last summer, and proved its qualities, I herewith send to you a description and figure of it, with a parcel of the seeds for distribution.

It is a winter squash with a hard rind, and is said to have been brought from the city of New York to Waltham, where some of the fruit was grown in the summer of 1849. The friend who gave me this account, favored me with seeds, which were planted on the 25th of last May. Previously, however, in February or March, I saw the same kind of squash in Boston market, and was told that it came from the West Indies, and I think it highly probable that it originated there. Nevertheless, it is perfectly well adapted to our latitude and climate, having grown and ripened in my garden, the last summer, which was not a favorable season for this kind of fruit.

My squashes were gathered on the 8th of October. Some of them were soon used for puddings or pies, as they are often called, and were found to be very good for that purpose. The flesh, when stewed, was tender throughout, and lighter colored than that of our common winter squashes, but inferior in flavor. It was easily separated, by scraping from the thin and tough rind which, did not become tender by cooking. As a sauce, with meat, it is not so good as the crook-necked, 'and much inferior to the marrow squash.

One of these squashes was kept till the 22nd of January. It weighed 18 1-2 pounds; was 16 1-2 inches long, and 2 feet, 2 inches in circumference around the middle. Form, elongated elipsoidal; slightly depressed at each end; longitudinally tenribbed, five of the ribs corresponding with the an§Ies of the stem, more prominent than the others. car at the blossom-end small, about one-quarter of an inch in diameter. Rind smooth, with a few irregular elevations on it; harder than that of the crook-necked winter squash, but not woody, about as thick as press-paper and of a dark cream or cheese color. Flesh 1 1-4 inch thick, deep yellow, very firm and fine-grained throughout. Seeds numerous, whitish, oblong oval, truncated at base, and, like those of pumpkins and squashes, furrowed all round within the margin.* Like the latter, also, they are connected by orange-colored fibres to the Bides of the fruit, in six parcels, each parcel consisting of three ranks of seeds. The membranous partitions, dividing the cavity of the squash into three cells, though broken away from the sides, had not entirely disappeared. Fruit-stem C inches long, slightly enlarged next the fruit, with five rounded edges of angles, and as many deep intervening furrows, in the bottom of each of which was also an elevated line or ridge.


The vines, leaves and blossoms do not differ essentially from those of the common winter pumpkin and winter squash.

Yours, truly. T. W. Harris.

Cambridge, Jan. 25, 1851.

Remarks.—We are much obliged to Dr. Harris, for his valuable contribution. We have already distributed most of the seeds. A very fine specimen of this squash weighing 16 Ibs. is now before us, raised by Mr. Raynolds, one of our publishers, on his place in Concord. He thinks much of them as to their quality, production and keeping. They ripened well last season, though it was rather cool for plants from a tropical climate. Dealers in the market, who frequently have this squash from the West Indies, say that it sometimes succeeds well here, but is rather uncertain.—Ed