IMMENSE PUMPKIN

Opotiki News, Volume II, Issue 210, 21 July 1939, Page 4

IMMENSE PUMPKIN

WEIGHT OF 219L8. CLOSE TO A . RECORD GOOD GISBORNE CROP, ■ An immense licit! -pumpkin, creating nearly a record tor New Zealand, was taken from a good crop oil Mr. -L V. Smith’s farm, Gisborne, recently, it was sent to Messrs. Common, Shelton and Cbmpai'fy’s ‘storf* in Gisborne, and when scraped of a little mud gathered in the Held it turned the scales at 2191 b. The record pumpkin weight for Poverty Bay and for the Dominion is 225 lh. This pumpkin was entered by Mr.' J. Atkin, Ormond, in the Poverty Bay Winter Show hist .year-eclipsing the record sot two years before with a 205* lh. pumpkin exhibited hy Mr. Jas. Haskins, Manut-ukp. _ ; Good; Fleshing For a poor-growing season such as the one the district has j fist passed through, the 2191 b. weight is remarkably good. The pumpkin -is not solarge as one might expect from such a huge weight, but when ept it was seen to he deeply fleshed with a good bright colour inside. Iho flush, which was good and firm, suggesting great' feeding value, had an average thickness of more than (jin. ; When measured; the pumpkin was ,‘fOin. high and 2-lin. wide. The mess-, urement round the widest- part was (Hin.. while round' the top and bottom the tape met at 69fin. The poor nature of the season for pumpkin-growing was noted at the Winter Show, when the winning oxhibit turned the scales at only ltiSlh., a weight that would not have secured a place in normal years. Winter Shew Winners. Weights of winning pumpkin's at Winter Shows since 19T2 are shewn ill the following table:— Year Winner lh.

Poverty. Bay is recognised as a- district which grows the heaviest pumpkin crops, and no district has ccme forward so far to dispute' its claims for thc< Dominion record lor the'heaviest single pumpkin.

1932 ,T. 15. Groi1 88.V 1933 C. Tiotjon 1901 1934 Kric Tiotjcn 174 1931 R. W. Coon iesi 1936 J. Hoskins 2051 1937 No Show. 1938 J. Atkin 225 1939 Jock Tittjen 168