SQUASHES, HOW TO GEOW THEM, ETC. 17 



the young vines. Let any farmer try the plan of prepar- 

 ing his hills as I have detailed above, and I will guaran- 

 tee that he will not again return to the present system. 

 If barn manure is to be used in the hills, let them be 

 made saucer shape, broad and shallow. In preparing 

 freshly broken sod, I find Share's harrow an excellent 

 implement, as it will pare down the sod to an inch in 

 thickness, and make the soil as easy to be worked as old 

 ground. 



HOW FAR APART SHOULD WE HAVE THE HILLS, AND 

 HOW MANY VINES SHALL WE LEAVE IN THE HILL? 



The great error among farmers is to make these hills 

 too near together, and leave too many vines in each hill. 

 A very common distance for Marrow squashes is six feet 

 apart each wa} r , three or four vines being left in each hill. 



A little figuring will show the bad policy of the prac- 

 tice. When a Marrow squash vine grows alone and it 

 oftentimes happens that one comes up among other crops 

 on the farm it will mature as many as three squashes, and 

 at times half a dozen or more. Squashes so grown are 

 almost always fine types of the particular variety. JSTow, 

 on the contrary, when the hills are six feet apart, with 

 three or four vines to a hill, the vines will not average 

 one squash to each. I have been amused to receive the 

 estimates of farmers of the number of squashes to the 

 vine on the heaviest crop of Marrows they ever saw. As 

 often as not the reply would be "three to the vine." 

 Now an acre of ground planted 6x6 will have about 

 1200 hills to the acre ; four vines to the hill would be 

 4800 vines to the acre. The present variety of Autumnal 

 Marrow squashes as now grown, will average above seven 

 pounds to the squash ; if the vines produced on an aver- 

 age one squash apiece, we should then have 33,600 Ibs., or 

 over seventeen tons to the acre ! Whereas the largest crop 

 on record, as far as I am aware, of this variety of Marrow 

 is less than eleven tons to the acre. From such figures 



