1862 - The Improved Pumpkin - Humorous Prediction for 1962

This was a surprise!  In 1862 an illustrator was imagining what the pumpkin of the future would look like as people seemed to be breeding for size.    The future was faraway in 1962.

“ That's what we are coming to," said our humorous artist, as he threw upon our table the above picture which he had just sketched after examining the large pumpkins exhibited at the Office of the American Agriculturist in competition for the prizes offered. He has undoubtedly “ stretched things” somewhat, as is his wont, but we believe that no exhibition of the kind ever excited more wonder than has been expressed by the crowd of visitors who have thronged our office during the exhibition. It was a complete success in every respect, in the number and variety of specimens shown, and in the mammoth size of several monsters of the pumpkin tribe.

 The heaviest pumpkin shown in London weighed 176 lbs., the second largest 154 lbs. These would look small beside our mammoth specimen,_which stands 3 feet high, girls 8 feet 7 inches, and weighed when picked 289 lbs 1 Its 'weight has since been reduced by drying out. Four of our specimens each weigh over 200 lbs. So we can now put another feather in the cap of Yankee Doodle, and may claim the fastest yacht, the best reaper, the most effective gunboat, and the BIGGEST PUMPKIN! 

To read the entire article - http://books.google.com/books?id=5qhAAQAAMAAJ&dq