110 CUCUEBITACEOUS PLANTS. 



abundant bearer, rarely fails in maturing its crops perfectly, 

 is of first-rate quality, and may be justly styled an acquisi- 

 tion. For pies, it is not surpassed by any of the family ; 

 and it is superior for table use to many of the garden 

 squashes. The facility with which it hybridizes, or mixes 

 with other kinds, renders it extremely difficult to keep the 

 variety pure ; the tendency being to increase in size, to grow 

 longer or deeper, and to become warty, either of which 

 conditions may be considered an infallible evidence of de- 

 terioration. 



Varieties sometimes occur more or less marbled and 

 spotted with green ; the green, however, often changing to 

 yellow after harvesting. 



THE SQUASH. 



All the varieties are tender annuals, and of tropical ori- 

 gin. They thrive well only in a warm temperature ; and 

 the seed should not be sown in spring until all danger from 

 frost is past, and the ground is warm and thoroughly settled ; 

 as, aside from the tender nature of the plant, the seed is 

 extremely liable to rot in the ground in continued damp and 

 cold weather. 



Any good, well-enriched soil is adapted to the growth of 

 the Squash. The hills should be made from eight to ten 

 inches in depth, two feet in diameter, and then filled within 

 three or four inches of the surface with well-digested com- 

 post ; afterwards adding sufficient fine loam to raise the hill 

 an inch or two above the surrounding level. On this, 

 plant twelve or fifteen seeds, covering three-fourths of an 

 inch deep. Keep the earth about the plants loose and clean, 

 and from time to time remove the surplus vines, leaving the 

 most stocky and vigorous. Three plants are sufficient for 

 a hill, to which number the hills should ultimately be 

 thinned ; making the final thinning when all danger from 



