22 SQUASHES, HOW TO GKOW THEM, ETC. 



would rather have the work done by a one-horse Culti- 

 vator with a boy to direct the horse and a man to hold 

 the implement, than have the services of twenty men 

 with hand hoes ; for not only would the surface be gone 

 over in equal time, but the ground be more deeply and 

 more thoroughly stirred, and the weeds be better shaken up 

 and turned under than would be possible with hoe cul- 

 ture. The cultivator should be used as often as the 

 weeds start, and whenever the surface appears hard, the 

 object being two-fold, to eradicate weeds and keep the 

 surface light and mellow. If witch grass abounds, the 

 Cultivator must be freely used, particularly when the 

 surface is hot and dry, that the vitality of the freshly 

 torn roots may be destroyed. It is not well to leave 

 the soil unstirred until weeds have attained to some 

 size, as such are very apt to re-root. If the Cultivator 

 is used while the weeds are small, it can be spread 

 open to its utmost capacity. It is always well to have 

 one course of the Cultivator half overlap the preceding 

 course. 



The last, and one of the most critical, periods when 

 the Cultivator is needed, is just previous to the push- 

 ing out of the runners over the surface of the field. 

 The vines are then growing rapidly, (I have found that 

 the large varieties, by actual measurement, grow as 

 much as fourteen inches in forty-eight hours), and if spec- 

 ial care is not exercised, the runners will push so far 

 as to prevent the final use of the Cultivator. The re- 

 sult will be a very weedy field the remainder of the 

 season. I have sometimes practised, when caught in 

 this way, breaking the hold of the tendrils and turning 

 aside with the hand such runners as had got so far 

 from the hills as to be in the way of the Cultivator; 

 but I have observed that where the tendrils are broken 

 from whatever they have naturally clung to, as often as 

 not the vines are injured so much by the wind that 



