26 SQUASHES, HOW TO GEOW THEM, ETC. 



that the fine yellow dust of the male flower should touch 

 these, to fertilize them, that seed may be produced, and 

 consequently a squash grow — for the primary reason why 

 a squash grows, is, to protect and afford nutriment to the 

 seed, the use of it as food being a secondary matter. This 

 may be proved by so confining a blossom, that no pollen 

 can get access to it, when the blossom will usually wilt, 

 and the embryo squash turn yellow and decay. If the fe- 

 male flower be broken off from the embryo squash before 

 the flower has come to full maturity, the squash will de- 

 cay. These female blossoms are so covered and hidden by 

 the tall leaves, that it is evident that the fertilizing pollen 

 must be conveyed to them by the bees, to whom the 

 squash field appears to be a rich harvest field. All of the 

 crossing or mixing of squashes is caused by the pollen 

 from the male flowers of one variety being carried by the 

 bees to the female flowers of another variety. Squashes 



ARE CROSSED OR MIXED IN THEIR SEED, AND NOT IN THE 



fruit. Many cultivators are in error on this point ; they 

 have the very common illustration of the crossing of dif- 

 ferent varieties of corn in their mind, where the mixture 

 of the varieties is at once apparent to the eye, and infer 

 from this, that the mixture between different varieties of 

 squashes should make itself visible to the eye the same sea- 

 son it occurs. A moment's reflection will correct this ; 

 the crossing of the first season is always in the seed, and 

 for this reason we see it in the corn the first season, as the 

 seed is immediately visible to the eye, while the various 

 colors of the different varieties also aid us in the matter. 

 With squashes the crossing is likewise in the seed, and 

 hence can not be seen in them, until the seeds are 

 planted, when the yield will show the impurity of their 

 blood. But, though the crossing can not be seen in the 

 squashes themselves the first season, yet, if one of the va- 

 rieties planted near each other, has seed having the pecu- 

 liar, thick, salmon-colored coating, so characteristic of 



