GROWING SQUASHES 263 



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

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

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

 ing; 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 may often help to use waste land. J. W. Scott, 

 of Stanislaus county, keeps his ditch banks cultivated all spring that 

 he could grow squash on them for hog feed in the fall. In ordi- 

 nary years a big lot of land is wasted in ditch banks, but by keep- 

 ing them cultivated there is room for two rows of squash on Mr. 

 Scott's ditches, and as the land in them sub-irrigates all during the 

 summer they will require very little care after planting. Mr. Scott 

 uses a crooked neck variety because of less damage from worms. 



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 Chapters XXI and XXIV, to which the reader is re- 

 ferred. The bush varieties of squashes follow the cucumber in 

 distances, and the running varieties follow the watermelon dis- 

 tances. There is, however, some difference in the practice of grow- 

 ers of the running varieties; some advocate rather close planting, 

 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 distance 

 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 Chapter XI on propagation are as defi- 

 nite as they can be made, according to the character of the soils 

 employed. 



Cultivation must be begun as soon as possible after planting, 

 to save moisture from loss either by weeds or evaporation, and 

 must be frequent for the same reason. Nothing looks more dis- 

 tressful than squash vines perishing on baked clay or dry sandy 

 soil which, if properly cultivated from the start, would have sus- 

 tained a splendid growth. 



