20 SQUASHES, HOW TO GROW THEM, ETC. 



rels or field mice abound, it will be found safer to plant 

 with the hoe, as the little rascals appear to have a rare 

 faculty for smelling out the very spot where the seeds lie 

 when thrust under by the finger. I have known them to 

 begin at one end of a field and pass from hill to hill in a 

 straight line across the field, digging out every seed with 

 unerring accuracy. Seed opened with a knife and rubbed 

 with arsenic or strichnine and scattered in the paths will 

 generally check them. Two inches is ample depth in any 

 soil, and early in the spring, or in a rather wet or heavy 

 soil, the seed had better not be planted more than from 

 an inch to an inch and a half in depth. 



Seed planted on upturned sod will vegetate sooner and 

 come up with larger rudimentary leaves than that planted 

 in rich, old ground ; I presume that this is because sod 

 land lies lighter and is better drained and, consequently, 

 warmer than old ground. If, when the rudimentary 

 leaves appear, the seed shell adheres to either leaf, it 

 will do no harm, but if it confines both leaves together, 

 it should be removed, if it can be done without injury. 

 If a seed pushes but a single rudimentary leaf above the 

 surface, the plant rarely, if ever, comes to anything. If 

 these rudimentary leaves continue to increase in size, but 

 no leaf shows itself springing from between them, the 

 plant will come to nothing. If the young plants come 

 with a yellow color, it proves that the season is too cold 

 for them ; if, on the other hand, they assume a very dark, 

 dull green color, it is usually because the manure with 

 which the young rootlets are in contact is too strong for 

 them; it is good policy, when the manure proves too 

 strong, to carefully remove some of the earth around the 

 plants with the finger, and with the finger stir in a little 

 fresh earth, 



If, as at times will happen, some hills are entirely desti- 

 tute of plants, it is far better to plant them with seed 

 than to transplant surplus vines from other hills ; true, 



