WHEN GREENWOOD
GREW BIG SQUASHES.
HE DESERTED THE FARM TO
TEACH SCHOOL.
It Was Then That He Bid Farewell
to Fame and Name as
the Great "Squash
King."
The opportunities for a truck gardener to become immensely wealthy are more numerous than in any other line of business. This fact was clearly demonstrated yesterday afternoon at the Coates house, where members of the Missouri Valley Horticultural Society devoted their time to an explanation of nature and her wonderful productions.
"There are men in this city today who would be wealthy had they devoted their time and energy to a cultivation of the soil instead of following business careers," said one of the members.
"Professor J. M. Greenwood, superintendent of the public schools, would have undoubtedly become famous as the "squash king," had he persisted in his experiments with squash.. The professor did not deign to waste his time with the ordinary brand of squash known to the general public. His squashes were full grown."
There was a dreamy, far away expression in the professor's eyes yesterday, as he told of seven squash seeds, planted in earth, which had been dug from a well and which produced a sufficient number of squashes to supply the wants of the entire surrounding country. These squashes, according to Professor Greenwood, ranged in size from sixty pounds to the size of a large washtub.
But it must not be supposed that Professor Greenwood was permitted to carry off the honors of the occasion without a contest. As a matter of fact there was a strong faction among those present, who still insist that the squash story was surpassed by the feat of Major Frank Holsinger, who upon one occasion, neglected to prune his grape vines. Thinking they had been destroyed by the severe cold, they were permitted to remain as they were. Behold his surprise, then, as the grape season approached to observe his grape vines loaded with fruit. The fact that Major Holsinger placed a chair under one vine and picked a bushel of grapes without moving the chair, is ample evidence of his success as a grower of grapes.
Although there was some discussion as to the nature study in the schools and the advisability of teaching the children more of plant and insect life, it could be plainly seen that the minds of the majority of those present were busily engaged in mathematical computation as the money to be made on a ten-acre tract of land if the soil be devoted to grapes and squashes
