"The bottle gourd, (_lagenaria_) grows in many parts of the world to
near six feet long, and two feet thick.
The rinds or shells are used by the negroes in the West India
islands as bottles, holding from one pint to many gallons. Barham
speaks of one that hold nine gallons; and the Rev. Mr. Griffith
Hughes mentions them in his history of Barbadoes, as holding
twenty-two gallons. Sloane mentions one of these gourds as large as
the human body.
* * * * *
"The gourd called Vegetable Marrow, is of a pale yellow colour.
Those I have seen did not exceed from seven to nine inches in
length. It has only been known a few years in this country; and, I
believe, was not sold in the shops and markets before the summer
of 1819; and although they are of so late an introduction, the
accounts are very imperfect: but it seems most probable that the
seeds were brought in some East India ships, and likely from Persia,
where it is called _cicader_. It is cultivated in the same manner
as cucumbers, and is said by those who have grown them to be very
productive. This fruit is used for culinary purposes in every stage
of its growth. When very young, it is good fried with butter; when
half-grown, it is said to be excellent, either plainly boiled, and
served up sliced on toasted bread, as asparagus; or stewed with rice
sauce, for which purpose it is likewise sliced. It is often sent to
table mashed like turnips: when full grown, it is used for pies. It
has been highly recommended to me by many persons who have grown it,
while others speak of it as but little superior to the pompion."
We observe, from Galiffe, that the pumpkin is the principal food
of the lower orders in Venice; and have no doubt but that it might
be very advantageously introduced into the messes of this country,
but for the prejudice against all innovations of this sort, and
for purposes of economy. All along the Danube too, the gourd and
the melon constitute, during their season, the daily meals of the
labouring classes.
THE PROMPTER.--No. X.
_It will do for the present._
Custom, with an iron rod, rules four-fifths of mankind. My _father_
planted corn on a certain piece of land--it answered well--_I_ do
the same, though it does _not_ answer well. My neighbour such a one
tells me that I had better try a change of crops, deep ploughing, or
sowing turnips or clover; it may be the land will recruit; but my
neighbour is notional, and fond of _new things_. _I_ do not like
projects. My father did so before me, and _it does for the present_.
So says the Virginia planter; he has raised tobacco on a field,
until the soil is exhausted; he knows not how to fertilize the
land again; his only resource is to clear a new spot, and take the
benefit of nature's manure. _This does for the present._ But when
his land is _all_ impoverished, what will he do? Go to Kentucky;
as the New England men to Genesec. But when the western world is
all peopled, what will our _do for the present folks_ do for good
land? The answer is easy; necessity will compel them to use _common
sense_; and common sense will soon make old poor land rich again.
When farmers learn _to work it right_, they will keep it good, for
the Prompter ventures to assert, that a _proper tillage_ will for
ever keep land good. How does nature _work it_? Why nature covers
land with herbage; that herbage withers and rots upon the land; and
gradually forms a rich black mould. But farmers, when they have used
land till it will bear _no crops_, let it lie without feeding it. No
herbage grows on the land, till the weeds and a little grass creep
in by chance; after three or four years, the farmer ploughs it for a
crop, and has a job at killing weeds. Surely the man _does not work
it right_; but he says, _it will do for the present_.
But no _body_ is so apt to put off things with, _it will do for
the present_, as _corporate bodies_. If the navigation of a river
wants improvement, the _public body_, that is, _any body_, _every
body_, and _no body_, immediately exclaims, "how did our _fathers_
get along? The river did well enough for _them--it must do for the
present_." If a bad law exists, by which the _public money_ is to
be collected in the _worst manner_ that can be imagined; or if a
constitution is defective, in permitting the same men to be _makers_
and _judges_ of a law; or the same men to rejudge a cause in a
_higher_ court, which they have before judged in a _lower_ court;
or which makes a legislature of two hundred men, a supreme court,
to review the decisions of all inferior courts, and reverse their
judgments; or if a constitution has _no executive at all_, and a
_judiciary power_ dependent on the annual votes of two hundred men,
which is little better than _none;_ I say, if a man proposes any
reformation in those particulars, the public body says, away with
your _projects; let us go on in the good old way; it will do for
the present_. So in little public bodies, a town or a city, the
poor must be provided for, bridges must be built, roads must be
repaired--How? By a tax, or by labour. Is it best to raise money
enough this year to pay the town debt? No, says the town. We will
raise _almost_ enough; _this will do for the present_. Let a little
debt accrue every year, till the whole will make a _shilling tax_,
and pay the whole at once. Put off, put off, says the town. _And so
says the sinner._
A bridge must be built. Is it best to build a good one; of stone,
or some materials that will last? No, it will cost _more_, says the
town; a wooden bridge _will do for the present_. The water may carry
it away; it will decay, and somebody may break his neck by the fall;
but no matter, _it must do for the present_.