SQUASH. 85 
SQUASH. 
Treatment for raising a seed crop is similar to pump- 
kin. Squash does best in a good, rich soil and thrives 
in a warm temperature. To avoid mixture, two differ- 
ent varieties should not be allowed to grow near each 
other; squash will also mix with pumpkin and with 
gourds. A safe distance to keep varieties apart is forty 
rods. 
In the Middle States and in the West, the usual time 
for planting is May 15th for summer varieties, May 
5th to 15th for winter kinds. 
Make hills for the former, three feet apart each way; 
for the latter, eight feet each way; summer varieties 
may also be planted in rows three feet apart, dropping 
two or three seeds every eight inches in the row. 
Eight to twelve seeds should be planted in each hill; 
thinning when all danger from bugs is past, summer 
varieties to three or four plants in a-hill, winter sorts 
two plants to a hill. If planted in rows, summer sorts 
should be thinned to one plant every eight inches. 
Cultivation should be thorough and weeds kept down. 
Harvest and extract seed after the manner for pump- 
kin. Summer varieties should undergo twenty-four 
to forty-eight hours’ fermentation, similar to cucumbers; 
but the winter varieties must not be fermented at all, 
the course for these being precisely like that described 
for white-seeded pumpkins, to which refer. 
Summer squashes are washed and dried in the same 
manner as directed for cucumber; while for winter 
varieties these operations are same as for white-seeded 
pumpkins. 
Market.—Squash seed is sold largely by the trade, 
the demand running principally to summer varieties. 
It is produced entirely in this country, mostly in the 
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