SQUASHES, HOW TO GEOW THEM, ETC. 7 



fested with bugs, than old tillage soil. The practice of 

 digging holes a foot or two in diameter in patches of turf 

 in waste places, around hedges, or in corners of fields, 

 which, after filling with manure, are planted to squashes, is 

 but a waste of time ; the result is, a growth of vine of a 

 few feet in length, the setting of squashes, and then both 

 squash and vine become checked in their growth, as the 

 roots of the vine make vain efforts to penetrate a dense 

 mass of hungry grass roots in search of food, the leaves 

 gradually turn yellow, and before you know it, have 

 entirely disappeared. By pulling on a dead vine, you 

 drag out a half grown squash hidden among the grass. 



If the sod abounds in the pest known by various names, 

 as witch, twitch, or quack grass, there is some danger that 

 the grass will overrun the vines. If the grass has not 

 been quite thoroughly torn up by the cultivator before 

 the vines begin to run, better plow up at once, as the crop 

 will be nearly ~a failure. Hoeing up and hand pulling the 

 grass will practically amount to nothing under such cir- 

 cumstances, as I once learned to my sorrow. If the sod 

 is not very badly run to twitch, there is but little clanger, 

 provided the cultivator is faithfully used from the time 

 the vines appear above ground until the runners begin 

 to push. 



THE MANURE. 



The squash vine is a rank feeder. Night soil, barn ma- 

 nure, wood ashes, guano, muscle mud, hen manure, super- 

 phosphate of lime, pig manure, sheep manure, fish guano, 

 fish waste — either of these alone, or in compost, is greedily 

 devoured by this miscellaneous feeder. The great error 

 in the cultivating of the squash is to starve it. By many 

 cultivators, when every other crop has had its share, and 

 the manure heap has been used up, a piece of sod is broken 

 for the squash patch, about the only food depended on 



