SQUASH CULTURE 283 



fifty feet and from thirty to forty two good sized fruits to the single 

 vine are recorded a good wagon load to the vine. 



Localities and Soils. The greatest specimens and the heaviest 

 crops are produced on rich, retentive loams. These are rather 

 heavy soils and are usually the lowlands of either coast or interior 

 valleys. But great squashes are not confined to such soils. Lighter 

 soils, if abundantly rich and adequately moist, are also very satis- 

 factory, and in fact any good soil deeply plowed and properly culti- 

 vated, until the vines cover the ground, may be expected to give 

 good return. For this reason the dairy farmer who has suitable 

 land, grows squash in large quantity for fall and early winter 

 feeding; the mixed farmer enters squash as a stated item in his list 

 of crops, and the fruit farmer is quite apt to grow squash between 

 the trees in his young orchard, to contribute to his family milk 

 supply. 



The squash is somewhat exacting in its moisture supply, and 

 does not respond well on light, dry soils unless irrigated. With 

 enough moisture the plant endures the highest interior heat and 

 records large production. Excessive irrigation is, however, to be 

 avoided, for it is apt to diminish the fruiting. 



Culture. The squash plant is very tender: it is destroyed by 

 frost, and the seed is apt to fail in cold ground. The proper prac- 

 tice is to have the soil previously well cultivated, but to delay plant- 

 ing seed or transplanting seedlings from the covered bed until the 

 time is frost-free and the soil warm. The culture of the squash is 

 therefore like that already prescribed for the cucumber and for 

 melons, in the chapters devoted to those subjects, to which the 

 reader is referred. The bush varieties of squashes follow the 

 cucumber in distances, and the running varieties follow watermelon 

 distances. There is, however, some difference in the practice of 

 growers of the running varieties : some advocate rather close plant- 

 ing, as six by six or eight by eight feet in squares, and others plant 

 at wider distances, even to setting two plants in a place at intervals 

 of fourteen feet apart. It is impossible to state any specific dis- 

 tance at best : it is to be determined locally according to the growth 

 which the local soil and climate produce. One is apt to err on the 

 side of crowding than otherwise. 



Care must be had not to cover the seed too deeply. It must 

 be firmly placed in moist soil and covered enough to avoid quick 

 drying. The suggestions in the chapter on propagation are as 



