File:The field and garden vegetables of America (Page 214) (6002095515).jpg

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CUCL'RMTACEGUS TLAls'TS.
Canada Crookneck.
The plants of this variety are similar in habit to those of
the Common Winter Crookneck ; but the foliage is smaller,
and the growth less luxuriant. In point of size, the Canada
Crookneck is the smallest of its class. When the variety is
unmixed, the weight seldom exceeds five or six pounds. It
is sometimes bottle-formed ; but the neck is generally small,
solid, and curved in the form of the Large Winter Crook-
necks. The seeds are contained at the blossom-end, which
expands somewhat abruptly, and is often slightly ribbed.
Skin of moderate thickness, and easily pierced by the nail ;
color, when fully ripened, cream-yellow, but, if long kept,
becoming duller and darker ; flesh salmon-red, very close-
grained, dry, sweet, and fine-flavored ; seeds comparatively
small, of a grayish or dull-white color, with a rough and un-
even yellowish-brown border ; three hundred are contained
in an ounce.
The Canada is unquestionably the best of the Crooknccked
sorts. The vines are remarkably hardy and prolific ; yielding
almost a certain crop both North and South. The variety
ripens early; the plants suffer but little from the depredations
of bugs or worms ; and the fruit, with trifling care, may be
preserved throughout the year. It is also quite uniform in
quality ; being seldom of the coarse and stringy character so