But most of all it is an
object lesson that power triumphs over lesser power, and that the
highest power has dominion over all other power.
The great power of vegetable life was shown under circumstances that
seemed the least favorable in the following experiment:
In the Agricultural College at Amherst, Mass., a squash of the yellow
Chili variety was put in harness in 1874 to see how much it would lift
by its power of growth.
[Illustration: Yellow Chili Squash in Harness.]
It was not an oak or mahogany tree, but a soft, pulpy, squashy squash
that one could poke his finger into, nourished through a soft,
succulent vine that one could mash between finger and thumb. A good
idea of the harness is given by the illustration. The squash was
confined in an open harness of iron and wood, and the amount lifted was
indicated by weights on the lever over the top. There were, including
seventy nodal roots, more than eighty thousand feet of roots and
rootlets. These roots increased one thousand feet in twenty-four
hours. They were afforded every advantage by being grown in a hot bed.
On August 21 it lifted sixty pounds. By September 30 it lifted a ton.
On October 24 it carried over two tons. The squash grew gnarled like
an oak, and its substance was almost as compact as mahogany. Its inner
cavity was very small, but it perfectly elaborated its seeds, as usual.
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