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A crop of squashes will vary from 7 to 10 tons to the acre. Some 

 varieties are much heavier croppers than others. The Bay State has 

 yielded 12 tons per acre. The price per ton varies from year to year. 

 There is usually a good market some time each year at $30 per ton, 

 and often at $40 to $50. One year not long ago a few were sold at $4 

 and $5 a barrel. Considering the average crops of squashes, and how 

 great a yield of some companion crop may be secured, makes the 

 growing and storing of winter squashes look quite attractive. 



The hills for squashes should be 10 by 10 feet or 12 by 12 feet apart, 

 according to the soil and the variety grown. At the greater distance 

 the vines will often more than cover the ground and pile up. Where 

 manuring in the hill alone dig in a bushel of manure to the hill, about 

 1 foot deep and in a circle 2 feet in diameter. If manured broadcast, 

 as above suggested, a single forkful of manure or a large handful of 

 fertilizer dug into the hill will be enough. Plant five or six seeds in 

 a heel track and cover 1^ inches deep. Bunching the seeds does no 

 harm and the after-care is made easier than if they are scattered. 



The young plants should be up in five to seven days, and should 

 be dusted at once with a mixture of plaster, tobacco dust and Paris 

 green, a teaspoonful of Paris green to two quarts of plaster and two 

 quarts of tobacco dust. Often the flea beetle is on the plants and eating 

 before the farmer knows that the plants are up. The flea beetle is 

 easy to subdue, but the striped beetle is more persistent, and must be 

 attended to several times, until his season is past. It is extremely 

 important to dust with poison and plaster as soon as possible after a 

 rain, as the striped beetle eats very much more rapidly when the vines 

 are clean and soft. 



A duster may be made from a two-pound baking powder tin by 

 punching holes in the bottom, three-fourths of an inch apart, with 

 an awl or nail. A little experience will show how much poison dust 

 to put in the can at a time, but it should never be filled full. Put 

 the cover on tight. Put as many men or boys at the dusting job as 

 possible, and get the dust on while the plants are moist. These dusters 

 are particularly useful to put tobacco dust on peas, carrots and lettuce 

 when attacked by the green fly. 



By planting squashes as late as the 10th to 12th of June, trouble 

 with the black bug can be largely avoided. The bug is not often 

 troublesome, but when he is he may be trapped under shingles placed 

 on each side of the plant and inspected early every morning. Picking 

 off the bugs and their eggs and dropping them into a pail of kerosene 

 is the best known means of dealing with this insect. 



For very early summer squash or early marrows the seed is planted 

 under glass in hotbed or greenhouse, and transplanted into 5h or 8 

 inch pots, two plants to a pot; they are grown in the pots, with glass 

 protection, for about three weeks, and then hardened off to sfet in the 

 field. Plant the seed for these early squashes from April 1 to April 15, 



