Mr. Richard Corke, of Maidstone, recently laid four wagers that by his system of cultivation he would produce more grapes, melons, cucumbers, strawberries, and vegetable marrows, or in fact any vegetable whatever, than could be done by another in the ordinary way, and won them ail easily. These wagers originated in a conversation taking place in the company of several gentlemen, one of whom had presented Mr. Corke with some eyes of grapes and some vegetable marrow seed of fine quality. On making inquiry how they answered, Mr. Corke asserted that the canes of the vines would average more than twenty feet before the year came round, having been potted October 25, 1856, and planted out in a new hothouse just finished building on March 7,1857. At first Mr. Corke wished to decline the wager, as he told the gentleman he must win to a certainty. Being, however, pressed, he accepted a bet for two rods to average twenty feet. This they considerably exceeded, and at the same time three other bets were made respecting the vegetable marrow, Mr. Epps and Mr. Bunyard, the well-known horticulturists, being appointed to survey and watch progress.

The stem of the-vegetable marrow was eight inches round; its vine, together with leaves and stems, measured upwards of eight thousand feet, the wager being that Mr. Corke would not produce more than sixteen hundred feet. Upwards of four hundred fruit were cut from this Leviathan marrow plant. This discovery will be made public in a treatise nearly completed. Mr. Corke's plan is so simple that a mere child, after some slight instruction, could produce the same effect." - J. G. Lomax.