4 SQUASHES, HOW TO GKOW THEM, ETC. 



WHAT IS A SQUASH? 



In many parts of the South and West, where the fall 

 and winter squashes are not much cultivated, the term 

 " Pumpkin " is used for all the running varieties of the 

 squash or pumpkin family, with the exception of the 

 " Cushaw " class, which includes varieties that are closely 

 allied to the Crookneck. To clearly define what is meant by 

 the word squash in contradistinction from the word pump- 

 kin, as used among market-men, is no very easy matter, as all 

 the varieties, with the exception of the Crooknecks, easily 

 intercross with each other, and in the recently introduced 

 Yokohama, I have reason to believe we have found the 

 connecting link between the Crooknecks and other squashes, 

 thus destroying the reputation which the Crooknecks had 

 hitherto enjoyed of being the squashes of the squash fam- 

 ily. Grouping all the running varieties together, we ex- 

 press the marketman's idea of a squash, as distinguished 

 from a pumpkin, when we say that all varieties having 

 soft or fleshy stems, either with or without a shell, and all 

 varieties having a hard, woody stem, and without a shell, 

 are squashes ; while all having a hard stem and a shell 

 the flesh of which is not bitter, are pumpkins ; and all of 

 this latter class, the flesh of which contains a bitter prin- 

 ciple, are gourds. In a more general classification, all va- 

 rieties having a hard shell, are gourds, and those without 

 a shell, are squashes. I had an amusing instance under this 

 system of classification in a lot of seed, ordered from France 

 as " gourds ;" on examining them, I found that several of 

 the kinds were varieties of our table squashes. Making a 

 separate classification of the summer varieties, I define 

 such to be squashes, in contradistinction from gourds, as 

 are eatable at any period of their growth. It will be seen 

 that the distinctions I make are more commercial than 

 strictly scientific. What I aim at, is, to so define squashes, 

 pumpkins, and gourds, that experienced market-men, seed- 



