SQUASHES, HOW TO GROW THEM, ETC. 55 



what fluted, called Sweet Potato Squash, is highly prized 

 by souie who are of high repute among squash fanciers. 

 Several of the varieties that are grown as gourds, for 

 ornamental purposes, are edible, a large proportion of 

 them, indeed, as I have found on testing the largest of my 

 specimens before feeding to the pigs. As a general rule, 

 all that are not bitter to the taste are edible. 



The Vegetable Marrow is about the only variety of the 

 squash family cultivated by our English cousins. With 

 them, it is brought to the table in the same style as our 

 own varieties, or so cooked as to form part of a soup. 



A friend, who resided some years in England, informed 

 me that one of the greatest novelties to an English eye 

 was an Autumnal Marrow Squash, which he kept as a 

 center piece on his marble table for a month or more. 



The Custard Squash, one of the hard stemmed sorts, of 

 a yellowish cream color, oblong in shape, deeply ribbed, 

 weighing from twelve to twenty pounds, is quite a favorite. 



» ENEMIES OF THE VINE. 



The insect enemies are the striped bug (Galeruca 

 vittata), or pumpkin bug (Coreus tristis), and the insect 

 that produces the squash maggot. The striped bug ap- 

 pears about the first of June, and several broods being 

 hatched in the course of the summer, they continue their 

 depredations throughout the season. After the vines 

 have pushed their runners two or three feet, their vigor 

 is such that the after depredations of this little iiioect is 

 of no practical importance — with the exception of injury 

 occasionally done to immature squashes, the upper sur- 

 face of which are sometimes found covered with them, and 

 hundreds of little cell like holes are eaten out. The injury 

 done by the striped bug is mostly confined to the period 

 in the growth of the vine between its first appearance 

 above the ground and the formation of the fifth leaf. They 



