64 SQUASHES, HOW TO GEOW THEM, ETC. 



squeezed out or washed out. If squeezed out, it will dry 

 sooner, and when rubbed and winnowed when dry will 

 have a more velvety look than when washed. Where a 

 large quantity is to be handled, it is cleaned more quickly 

 by washing than by rubbing, but it requires to be dried 

 upon a comparatively clean surface ; whereas rubbed seed 

 can be dried upon any surface, no matter how dirty, as 

 the refuse squash that remains adhering to it effectually 

 protects it from all injury. Washed seed should not be 

 spread over one deep, and squeezed seed not over one and 

 a half deep ; each should be stirred after the second day. 

 If washed seed is stirred earlier, it is apt to be injured by 

 the tearing of the epidermis, which, for the first day or 

 two, adheres strongly to the surface it is spread on. The 

 temperature for drying seed should not be over about one 

 hundred degress, and better less than higher. Never dry 

 seed in an oven, or very near a stove. The upper shelf 

 of a kitchen closet, or a plate on the mantle piece, not too 

 near the stove funnel, are each of them handy, though 

 housewives will sometimes say they are not suitable 

 places if mice are apt to gnaw the seed in the closet, 

 or children to see them on the mantle, for a certainty I will 

 not dispute them. When the quantity to be cleaned is 

 small, the sooner it is attended to, after the entrails have 

 been removed from the squash, the brighter the seed will 

 look ; but if the quantity is large, by letting the mass stand 

 one or two days, until fermentation begins and the entrails 

 are partly decayed, the seed can be cleaned with far greater 

 expedition. Much care and some experience is requisite 

 to determine how far fermentation can be allowed to ad- 

 vance. As a general rule, if, on thrusting the hand into 

 the middle of the mass, it feels milk warm, it should be at 

 once mixed well together, and the whole be washed out 

 within six hours. The great danger in permitting fer- 

 mentation to advance too far is losing the white, ivory-like 

 epidermis of the seed, thus destroying much of their beauty, 



