62 SQUASHES, HOW TO GKOW THEM, ETC. 



when he will find a proportion of them with the green 

 color stolen from the African or South American family. 



Having decided on medium sized specimens for seed 

 stock, select those that are most strongly marked exter- 

 nally with the characteristics of the variety. If a Hub- 

 bard, it should be very thick and hard shelled, of a dark 

 green color, and the rougher and more nubbed the better. 

 Let it have a good neck and calyx end, and be as heavy 

 in proportion to its size as possible. The stem of both 

 this and the Marrow squash should stand at quite an 

 angle with the squash, and have a depression where it 

 joins, as this indicates an early ripened specimen. The 

 flesh should be hard, fine grained and thick, and not 

 stringy on the inside. See to it that the squash swells 

 out to a fair degree in the middle, and has an average 

 proportion of seed. Having selected such specimens 

 as these, bring them to the final test of the dinner table, 

 and reject every one that does not there show all the char- 

 acteristics of dryness, flavor, and fineness, that belong to a 

 first-rate specimen. 



I know that the injunction to select specimens that 

 swell out to a fair degree in the middle, is contrary to the 

 course pursued by most farmers ; yet I advise it on the 

 ground that such squashes, having a good quantity of seed, 

 have superior vitality and individuality, and are nearer na- 

 ture's ideal of perfection in the animal and vegetable king- 

 dom, being better able to maintain the species. 



I have seen the working of this law most conspicuously 

 in the Crookneck family of squashes. The cultivator's 

 type of a fine market squash is one with as large a neck 

 and as small a seed end as possible. Following out this 

 idea, they select for seed, specimens with a small seed end, 

 and the result, as far as I have observed, has been that the 

 squash, in the course of a few years, has deteriorated and 

 become worthless. 



