332 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
acres last year. Wehave enough for ourselves and the bugs, too. The only 
thing we fear is the grub worms. They hurt us some last year, but not 
much. After you get the third leaf on the squash, they get beyond harm 
from the bugs. The idea is, toget a rapid growth on the squash, and thus 
they soon get out of the way of the squash bug. It is a good idea to have 
squash seed kept over for two or three years—it would be better to keep it 
three years if you could. We have some saved ahead, but not enough yet. 
We think it is better to keep it over a couple of years. You get a stronger 
growth of vine from the old seed. We gather our squash before the frost 
when we can. We put them into our house and handle them very care- 
fully in doing so. We separate the vine from the squash by 
cutting it off with a knife, and leave about an inch of the 
stem on the squash. This is a very important point. We pack them 
in the house without throwing around or bruising them in any way. 
Wherever you crack a squash shell, that squash rots, and particularly 
when it is put down cellar. 
We have a special house for keeping squash, that we built 
three years ago. In regard to planting, we do not plant differ- 
ent varieties of squash together. We are very particular about that 
point. In selecting the seed we are particular to have it all of the same 
variety, and select it from squashes that best show the peculiar charac- 
teristics of that variety. We cultivate the Hubbard squash, and raised 
about 125 tons this year. We stored about sixty-three tons in our house, 
which is all that it would hold. Our squashes are put on shelves in the 
house, which is 24 by 38 ft., and 10 ft. high, and laid off into three bins. 
The shelves are two feet apart,and the middlealley isseven feet wide, and 
the two outside alleys are about four feet each. We lay a tier two or three 
feet deep on the shelf. The frost cannot penetrate the house, because it 
is built very warm. In building it, we made a plain building, and paper- 
ed and sided it, and sheathed it up on the outside. We puta stove in 
each corner of the house,that we keep going all winter long, and the tem- 
perature runs about 54 degrees. We try to keep it there as near as we 
can. It is very important to keep the atmosphere as dry as youcan. I 
exhibited a squash at the summer meeting last summer, that was as sound 
as when putin. The proportion of spoiled ones to sound ones will not ex- 
ceed over two per cent. I cannot tell you exactly, but it is somewhere in 
that vicinity. It is very important that you should keep your house 
warm. When we put our squash in in September, we start our fires going 
and open all our windows and ventilators. At our last winter meeting 
Prof. Green told me that he thought it was a good idea to smoke sulphur 
in the house, and I have tried it this winter, and think it is a great im- 
provement. Of course, it won’t do any good if you wait until after the 
squashes commence to decay, but if done in time it will prevent that. We 
commenced on it after we got our house filled up. When you commence, 
if you smoke them once in two weeks it willdo. We do not find that it— 
whitens our squashes any; neither does it penetrate the squash so as to af- 
fect its flavor. It is not necessary to use it very much, and of course you 
can keep your house open when you use it. I have two ventilators in my 
house, and when the weather is mild, like today, I throw open the doors. 
I do not keep anything else in the house except squashes. 
A Member: What will your squashes sell at? 
Mr. Chandler: Squashes are worth about $1 a dozen. Last year at this 
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