Through some unwritten and inscrutable law, it has come to be believed that the dung bed is the natural home of the Vegetable Marrow. I pointed out the fallacy of it all years ago, and I do so again now. In a hot, dry season a dung bed is about the worst place possible for Vegetable Marrows. They are thirsty plants, and when in free growth and bearing they must be able to suck large quantities of moisture into their strong stems, or they will shrivel, or cast the young fruit. A cubic yard of litter will not hold a fraction of the moisture held by a cubic yard of properly tilled soil, therefore it is not so good for Vegetable Marrows. I denounce the dung bed as an ideal Marrow home. The idea is wrong, and full of mischief. The production of two or three huge, bloated Marrows proves nothing. A few fat monsters do not make a crop. What constitutes a crop is an incessant supply of tender, high-flavoured Marrows from July till the plants are killed by frost in October or November. You cannot get this in a dry district in a dry season from a dung bed; you can without it. With the dung bed you may be able to force the plants along early. You may be able to show an ugly brute the size of a boarhound's body at a July exhibition, but you will not thereafter be cutting Marrows in abundance daily for three consecutive months. The plants will be dried up, their energies exhausted, long before. I do not object to a little dung being dug into the soil for Marrows if anyone likes to do it, but it is not necessary.