SQUASHES, HOW TO GKOW THEM, ETC. 63 



When to Take Out the Seed.— We have advised 

 that the specimens for seed purposes be selected early 

 in the season, because later, particularly when they 

 have been exposed to a high degree of heat, the color 

 becomes so changed that the work of selection becomes 

 far more difficult. The next question to discuss is, 

 when shall we seed them? Contrary to the generally 

 received opinion, the seed is not ripe when the squash is — in 

 other words, after the squash has completed its growth, 

 the vines dying naturally and the stem being dead and 

 hardened, still the seeds are not fully matured till some- 

 time after the squash is stored. The length of time will 

 vary with the season, it being longer in a wet season and 

 shorter in a dry one, the two extremes being from one to 

 three months. If seeds are taken out as soon as the squash 

 is gathered, though at the time they present a very plump 

 appearance, yet if they are examined after they are dry, a 

 large proportion will be found to be plump only on one 

 side, most of them to be twisted, and not a few of them 

 entirely wanting in meat. When seeding large lots for 

 market, I have found the percentage of loss in the weight 

 of the seed quite an important matter, it being as high as 

 one-fifth. After the squash is gathered, the process of 

 ripening the seed goes on until the entrails are absorbed, 

 or eaten up by the seed, and the seed continue to increase 

 in plumpness and weight until their entrails are so far con- 

 sumed that only so much remains as is necessary to hold 

 together the seed structure. This final ripeness is indicated 

 by the seed compartments in the squash becoming dis- 

 tinct, and the attachments peeling off like the skin from 

 an orange. If, when the squash is opened, the seed are em- 

 bedded in a hard, dense mass of growth within, that 

 does not readily separate from the squash, they will be 

 twice as hard to clean, and will weigh full twenty per 

 cent, short of the weight of well ripened seed when cleaned. 

 The seed is cleaned from the intestines by being either 



