| Show I tj PUMPKIN IS MONSTER 1 II j GROWS FROM SEED CAST AWAY IN GARBAGE + I t < ajhz II aj r hz I Shell of Vegetable Colossus In Rhode f Island Used by Hen as Brooding I Place and Fourteen Chicks fl r I Are Hatched Out i Providence n IThose good and if exact people who may have doubted vy that Cinderella after All had a pumpkin pump-kin as a chariot are respectfully rot ro-t t ferred to n Prudonco island production t in the pumpkin line which residents j 1 of that part of tho state proudly claim 1 was tho largest and heaviest over h t raised In New England They are surer sure-r the princess could havo ridden in It I t After rats had cleaned tho shell t 1 of the Prudence Island colossus of Its I 1 contents a lion took possession and W J established hor nest with a lot of i w I I room to spare and hatched out a I I bro > d of chickens The vine on which tho monster I grow came up of Its own accord on a spot where Joseph Wilson steward of the Island station of the Ilhodo Island Yacht club threw a pan of garbage and vegetable parings which doubtless contained the seed The vine was of phenomenal growth beIng be-Ing by measurement 28 feet from root to tip but was slow in maturing and the pumpkins did not ripen till after n light frost had pinched tho vine All of tho pumpkins were large but tho largest was three foot eight Inches In diameter and of proportionate weight Charles Smith of the Narra gansett Bay Oyster company and David Huffman Jr of the Twin Bench Inn farm carried the pumpkin to a shed near Mr Smltha dwelling It was their intention to place It on a I high shelf out of reach ot tats but tho great weight of tits fruit made this 1111 inmslblo and It was left on tho floor Tho fondness of rats for pumpkinseeds pumpkin-seeds is well known however and it was not long before they had gnawed a hole Into the side of the mammoth and completely excavated the soft Interior In-terior which contained the seeds Tho pumpkin seemed destined to have a domestic career Some three weeks ago Mr Smith missed n choice Rhode Island red hen from his flock and soon found her in tho pumpkin with 14 chickens When discovered he chicks were busily consuming tho floor and wall of their dwelling and ho rind was so thin In spots us to show that their mother had subsisted largely upon It during the period of Incubation Thinking that the pumpkin may iavo been of some unusual variety the friends had notified tho secretary 3f the Portsmouth Orange Agricultural aoclety asking that a committee be cut to Prudence to mako official ncasuroment and record of Its dl nonslons but tho unpleasantness of vlnter boating caused the examlna Ion to be postponed front time to line and the pumpkin Is now In such i state of collapse as to make veri cntion of existing measurements 1m loaslblo It Is a matter of regret that I tone of the seeds was saved I |
