10 SQUASHES, HOW TO GROW THEM, ETC. 



cords of barn manure, or its equivalent, to the acre ; this 

 is the minimum — when squashes are raised as a profitable 

 crop, from six to twenty cords of good manure per acre 

 are used. 



Twenty cords to the acre will, I doubt not, sound like 

 a large story to many readers, and it is a large quantity, 

 even for the high culture required for successful market 

 gardening, but I have seen that quantity applied, and 

 once, in my own practice, applied thirty-five cords to a 

 little over two acres of squash land, where the soil had 

 been over-cropped, (or rather under-fed,) for many years 

 before I came into possession of it. Let us look a moment 

 into that axiom — "the profits come out of the last cord 

 of manure." With four cords of good barn manure to 

 the acre, on good soil, the average yield would be about 

 four tons of Hubbard squashes ; with six cords of manure, 

 the average yield would be about six tons ; with eight 

 cords, the yield would be from seven to eight tons. These 

 are real results, that I have had in my own experience. 

 Here it will be seen that we gain about a ton of 

 squashes with each extra cord of manure ; in other words, 

 by investing eight or ten dollars, we treble or quadruple 

 our money in six month's time — quite a profitable bank 

 of deposit is the manure heap ! Not only is the crop 

 heavier, but the squashes are larger, and, therefore, far 

 more marketable and, usually, at a higher figure, often 

 readily bringing $5 or $10 a ton advance in the market. 

 ISTor is this all; the virtues of the manure are not ex- 

 hausted the first season ; but the ground is left in higher 

 condition for the crops of the next season. Again, let it 

 be noted that the cost of cultivation of a poor crop is just 

 as great as the cultivation of a large one, while the promise 

 of a large crop is a great cheer amid the labor of caring 

 for it. The strongest argument for the liberal manur- 

 ing of this and all other crops is, that a certain portion 

 of the crop but pays for the cost of producing it, and 



