HOME VEGETABLE GARDENING 



PUMPKIN 



AS THE largest and rankest growing member of the 

 large gourd family, pumpkins rarely fit into the 

 scheme of the average home garden. They should rather 

 be considered a farm crop and as such they are generally 

 grown in the cornfield. 



Pumpkin plants are warmth-loving plants and will not 

 do well where the nights remain cool throughout the sum- 

 mer. As natives of this country they thrive to perfec- 

 tion in all parts where frost does not disturb vegetation 

 between the end of May and the end of September. 

 Some kinds develop during a shorter growing season. 

 But these neither grow very large nor is their flesh of the 

 fine quality found in the choicer, later sorts. 



Pumpkin plants require very rich soil or the crop will 

 be undersized. The seeds sprout strongly in thoroughly 

 warm soil and the plants thrive vigorously, smothering 

 out all small weeds. How to raise prize-winning pump- 

 kins is told on pages 245-248. 



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