| Show PUMPKIN IS MONSTER M it FROM SEED CAST AWAY IN GARBAGE shell hell of vegetable colossus in rhode island used by hen as brooding 41 place and fourteen chicks are hatched out providence R I 1 those good and exact people who may have doubted that cinderella after all had a pumpkin a as a chariot are respectfully referred to a prudence island production in the pumpkin line which residents ot of that part of the state proudly claim was the largest and heaviest ever raised in new england they are sure the princess could have ridden in it after rats had cleaned the shell of the prudence island colossus of its contents a hen took possession and established her nest with a lot of room to spare and hatched out a brood ot of chickens the vine on which the monster grew came up of its own accord on a spot where joseph wilson steward ot of the island station of the rhode island yacht club threw a pan of garbage and vegetable parings which doubtless contained the seed the vine was of phenomenal growth be ing by measurement 28 feet from root to tip up bat but was slow in maturing and the pumpkins did not ripen till after a light frost had pinched the vine AH all of the pumpkins were large but the largest was three feet eight inches in diameter and of proportionate weight charles smith of the narra fansett bay day oyster company and david buffman jr of the twin deach beach inn farm carried the pumpkin to a shed near mr smiths dwelling it was their intention to place it on a aya v y high shelf out ot of reach of iutta but the great weight of fruit made this id it possible and it was left on the floor the fondness of rats for pumpkin seeds Is well known however and it was not long before they had gnawed a hole into the aide side of the mammoth and completely excavated the soft in gerior which contained the seeds the pumpkin seemed destined to have a domestic career some three weeks ago mr smith missed a choice rhode island red hen from his flock and soon found her in the pumpkin with 14 chickens wuen wilen discovered he be chicks were busily consuming the floor and wall of their dwelling and the rind wag was so thin in spots as to show that their mother had bad subsisted largely upon it during the period of incubation thinking that the pumpkin may way have been ol 01 some unusual variety the friends had notified the secretary of the portsmouth grange 0 agricultural society asking that a committee be ent to prudence to make official measurement and record of its dl lons but the unpleasantness of winter boating caused the ex arnIna ion to be postponed from time to ime and the pumpkin Is now in such i state of collapse as to make verl leation of existing measurements I 1 am in possible os sible ble it la Is a matter of regret that lone ione of the seeds was saved |
