THE HOME VEGETABLE GARDEN 105 



The weather should become warm and settled before squashes 

 are planted, and the soil for them must be well manured. Summer 

 Crookneck and Bush Scallop are good early varieties. Orange 

 Marrow is a superior fall variety and Hubbard is the standard 

 winter sort. Golden Hubbard is also good as are the Delicious 

 and Marblehead, the latter keeping very late. It is always well 

 to sow a good number of seeds in a hill to avoid probable destruc- 

 tion of many by insects. For the small black fly dust the foliage 

 with lime, soot, or ashes, while they are damp. It is also a good 

 plan to sow a few radish seeds in each hill ; the insects seem to eat 

 these with avidity and spare the squashes; the same dusting will 

 keep away the striped squash bug, but several applications may be 

 necessary. The squash vine borer is a very destructive pest; 

 very thorough cultivation before planting will kill many of these 

 ^rubs, which live in the soil, and work their way into the stalks 

 of the plants. Sometimes before the shoots are too wilted, the 

 stem can be slit, the borer discovered and destroyed, the cut part 

 ■covered in the soil, and the shoot regenerated; when badly wilted 

 it is best to pull up and bury the stems. 



Vegetable Marrows are easily grown and are very free fruiting 

 squashes, being especially good for summer and fall use, also for 

 preserving. The borers rarely attack this variety, nor do they 

 trouble pumpkins very much; of these latter Sugar and Nantucket 

 are splendid winter varieties for pies. To secure pumpkins of 

 the largest size, which are more curious than useful, dig a large 

 hole and fill with manure, reduce the plants to one in each hill and 

 thin out the shoots, also pinch back the long laterals, and allow 

 only one fruit to a plant. The variety Mammoth is the best to 

 grow for this purpose; very large squashes can be grown in this 

 way. 



The culture of cucumbers is similar to that of squashes and an 

 €arly crop can be secured in a frame, or plants may be started in 

 pots and planted out in hills, early in June. The Arlington White 

 Spine is a good variety. Melons are not really a vegetable at all 

 but are served only as dessert fruit. They are, however, always 

 catalogued with other vegetables, and may therefore be fairly 

 spoken of here. During the past few years these, thanks to warm 

 summers, have done extraordinarily well. Early batches can be 



