16 SQUASHES, HOW TO GROW THEM, ETC. 



roots, and finding under the old system of deep manuring, 

 that they would, at first starting, run but an inch or two 

 below the surface of the earth, when they would spread 

 out horizontally, and stretch on for some feet at a very 

 uniform distance below the surface. Again, I find my 

 crops very satisfactory under this system of manuring, 

 and for the past four years have cultivated all my crop 

 (four to seven acres annually), on this plan. My friends 

 will note that I reduce my manure very fine, and mix it 

 very thoroughly with the soil. My soil is a strong loam. 



PREPARING THE HILLS. 



The system almost universally advised and pursued in 

 preparing the hills for planting, is to throw out the earth 

 from within a circle of from two and a half to four feet in 

 diameter, and from six inches to a foot in depth, oftentimes 

 quarrying out rocks and digging into the hard-pan to get 

 the standard depth. Then fill in with manure, and cover this 

 with earth, raising a low mound in the form of a trun- 

 cated cone about six inches above the surface. On this 

 mound the seed are planted. Where the land is freshly 

 turned sod, the hills are usually made by cutting a hole 

 of the usual diameter in the sod with a sharp spade or 

 axe. In my own practice, I have given up this method for 

 years. The plan of excavating a hole, and putting in it 

 all, or about all, the manure for the crop, appears to 

 be founded on the theory that the roots will confine them- 

 selves to the area — an idea entirely erroneous, as we have 

 already shown. Quarrying into the hard-pan and putting 

 manure down to such cold depths, is inviting the vine to 

 violate its instinctive love of heat. Again, this system 

 involves a great deal of labor, particularly when sod land 

 is planted, and on these latter the pieces of sod taken out 

 of the hills remain nuisances over the surface of the field, 

 either clogging the cultivator, or being knocked against 



