ROOT CROPS AND VEGETABLES. 199 



years, without haviiif!: until now, realized any products from it 

 sufficient to pay for the simple labor of gathering them. The 

 product of last year, and of every year tliat I have owned it 

 until now, was grass. The land was ploughed last fall by the 

 society, seven inches deep. This spring, now passed, it was 

 ploughed twice by one horse as well as he could perform his 

 portion of the labor, and, if I am able to judge, should say 

 the work was done indifferently well each time ; sometimes the 

 plough would go sufficiently deep to cut the sod as turned over 

 last fall on the bottom, and at other times it would not go deep 

 enough either to cut the sod or to give satisfaction with the 

 ploughing. In the next place I purchased some hen manure, 

 somewhat adulterated with straw, loam and the like — four 

 barrels in all — four-fifths of which was put into the hills in 

 planting time, and the remainder was diluted with water, which, 

 together with a little plaster, was applied to the vines, to prevent 

 the ravages of the striped bug. No manure was applied to the 

 land last year nor any prior year within my knowledge. The 

 hills averaged seven and one-half feet apart one way, by nine feet 

 the other. The seeds planted were chiefly Hubbard, some Mar- 

 row, eight seeds to the hill, and the result was chiefly Hubbard, 

 some Marrow, and perhaps some mixture. The time of planting 

 was the 25th of May, 1861, hoeing and cultivating, 14th of June 

 and 6th of July following, and of harvesting, 21st of September. 

 October 6th, they were all weighed, excepting four hundred 

 and sixty-six and one-half pounds, when the entire sum of all 

 the squashes raised upon the forty-six and one-half rods of land 

 aforesaid was found to be 4,981 pounds. 



As would be gathered from the above, they were hoed twice 

 only, at each of which times the ground was stirred between 

 the hills at the same time, as it is customary, with the plough 

 or cultivator, in the present case, once with the plough and 

 once with the cultivator. The entire cost of raising the squashes, 

 may be summed up as follows : — 



Ploughing the land three times, . . . . $3 00 



Seed, 50 



Manures, ........ 5 00 



Labor of carting and planting the same, ... 3 90 



Cultivating and hoeing twice, 2 50 



