The Toledo chronicle. [volume] (Toledo, Tama County, Iowa) 1873-1924, 1875-08-12
sometimes found incased by the remains

sometimes found incased by the remains
of an old root having grown through IT.
The land was low and tile-drained, the
rye just reaching the standing water in the
soil. The black soil was twenty one inches
deep; the subsoil wasa stiff, yellow clay
In another connection he notices the
roots of Lombardy poplar in his garden,
! the roots of which extended seventy one
| feet, and cites a case where tile-drain in
| New Hampshire was DISTRACTED by the
roots of an elm $50 feet away. Prof Stock
| bridge. Of the Massachusetts, Agricultural
College, washed out clover root one year
old eight feet deep. Mr.. Dixon, of En-
gland, dug a parsnip thirteen feet six
inches, and broke it off at that depth.
Lucerne has been known to reach, in
England, twenty feet in depth. A
British officer in India reports having seen
tree-root followed sixty-nine feet deep
without coming to an end. Roots also
spread horizontally over equally surpris-
ing areas At Amherst, Mass, an elm
sent its roots seventy-tive feet from the
trunk.
In the case OF the squash winch 'Presi-
dent Clark, of the Massachusetts Agricult-
ural' College, caused 10 be harnessed and
bear pack like mule, the squash mot
the mule commenced by lifting sixty
pounds on Aug. 81. and ended by support
ing weight on Oct. 81 of 5000 pounds
and for ten days thereafter On Oct 81 it
lifted APO pounds. A Mr. D. P. Penhal-
low is said to have watched with it several
days and nights, making hourly observa-
tons; Prof H. W. Parker was moved TO
write poem about it, and Prof. ]. H.
Seeley declared that he positively stood in
awe of it.
After all this trouble and toll, watching
and waiting, expense and energy spent
what did it all amount TO, either in a scien-
tific or practical sense? So much and no
more than TO know how far flea will
jump, or how big boy an ordinary Down
East swapping turtle will support and walk
away with.
One thing in connection with this
squash is of value, as showing the surpris
ing extension of the roots Like some
human squashes it was an aristocratic
squash, and had palace to live in and
servants to attend it. The seeds "were
planted on the 1st of July in one of the
propagating pits Of the Durfee plant
house, where the temperature and moist
ure could be easily controlled A rich
bed of compost from a spent hotbed was
prepared, which was four feet wide, fifty
feet long and about six inches in depth.
Here, under the fostering care of Prof.
Maynard, the seeds terminated, the vine
grew vigorously and the squash lifted in
a most satisfactory manner"
1t is well known to every gardener that
our winter squashes will, under favorable
circumstances, produce roots at every
node or joint. President Clark states that
one Of these modal roots was washed out
and found to be four feet long and to have
$50 branches, averaging, with their
branchlets, a length Of thirty inches,
making a total Of more than 200 feet
As there were seventy modal roots there
must have been more than fifteen miles in
length on the entire vine. There were
certainly more than $4,000 feet, and of
these 80, 900 feet must have been produced
at the rate of l 900 feet or more per day
" Fcum and GardeH,' Chicago Tribune.