COMPOSITION, ETC., OF PUMPKINS. 57 



COMPOSITION OF THE PUMPKIN. 



The ordinary field pumpkin {Cucurbita pepo) is planted more or less 

 by New England farmers, frequently in the field with corn. It is used 

 as a human food, particularly for pies, and is also fed to pigs and to dairy 

 and beef cattle. 



Ulbricht and Kosutany ^ have shown that in twelve different varieties 

 of the genus Cucurbita the parts were present in the following propor- 

 tions: — 



Per cent. 



Shell 17 



Flesh, 73 



Seed, 2 



Seed and supporting tissue, ......... 7 



The pumpkin is a watery fruit. We have found variations of from 

 84.08 to 91.18 per cent., with an average of 87.53 per cent, in four lots 

 grown on two farms in two different years. In the pumpkin minus the 

 seeds and connecting tissue variations of from 90 to 94 per cent, were 

 noted, with an average of 92.78 per cent., while the seeds contained from 

 43 to 47 per cent. The seeds, it will be noted, were much less watery than 

 the other portions of the fruit. It was noted that the ripe pumpkins 

 without the seeds contained 4 per cent, less water than the same material 

 less mature. The riper the fruit and the drier the autumn the higher will 

 be the percentage of dry matter. 



Other investigators, including Dahlin,^ Braconnet,^ Zeunak,^ Gerardin,^ 

 Wanderleben,^ found in 10 sorts of the entire fruit extremes of from 85.8 

 to 94.2 per cent, of water, with an average of 90 per cent. Storer and 

 Lewis, 2 with 5 varieties, noted variations of from 84.3 to 94.6 per cent., 

 with an average of 90.41 per cent. HiUs ^ found 87.9 and 90.1 per cent, 

 in two lots of field pumpkins. 



On the basis of the natural moisture the four lots of the fruit examined 

 by us tested as follows : — 



• Landw. Versuchsstationen, 32, p. 231. 



* After Ulbricht, already cited. 



' Vermont Experiment Station, fourteenth report, Appendix, p. iv., and sixteenth report, 

 Appendix, p. iii. 



