360 AMERICAN 
St a ate 
The women who sell all the edible varieties preparing for trade in a corner of a gourd, melon and squash market in a French town 
Gourds and Melons 
of Unusual Growth 
By Jacques Boyer 
»), OURDS have been cultivated from very re- 
j/ mote times, and many varieties are now 
found in European and American gardens. 
Some of their fruits attain imposing di- 
mensions. A few years since a giant squash 
was exhibited at London, which was raised 
on the plains of Colorado. It measured 
nearly five feet in length and weighed 385 pounds. Other 
members of the gourd family assume strange forms, re- 
sembling turbans, serpents, bottles, domes, etc., some of 
which are represented in the accompanying photographs. 
According to Naudin, the gourds are derived from three 
distinct species: Cucurbita maxima, the parent of the 
French potiron, which is characterized by the great size of 
its fruit, and of some squashes; the African species (Cucur- 
bita moschata), which is distinguished by the peculiarity 
that the five-sided peduncle becomes expanded at its inser- 
tion in the fruit; and Cucurbita popo, the parent of the 
citronille of Touraine, the American pumpkin, some 
squashes, and the various ornamental gourds. 
French gardeners sow pumpkins and squashes in April 
in hotbeds, transplant the seedlings to other hotbeds, and 
finally to the open ground in May. This operation neces- 
sitates some preliminary work. Several days before the 
plants are set out, the holes are dug at distances of one to 
two yards, according to the variety. ‘These holes are then 
filled with thoroughly rotted manure, mixed with a little 
potash fertilizer, and covered with good soil. In the middle 
of the bed thus formed the seedling is planted so deeply 
that the lower leaves are covered. The young plants are 
watered frequently and are covered with a little straw if 
the sun is very hot. In frosty or cold weather, which occurs 
frequently in France in spring, a bell glass is placed over 
each plant, and in very warm weather the plants are 
watered more frequently. When the stems have attained 
a length of about five feet, they are layered, or covered 
with earth at a few points of their length, where they take 
root. This process promotes rapid growth. As soon as a 
fruit is formed, the end of the branch which bears it is 
pinched off just above the next leaf. If the fruit is mis- 
shapen it is removed. The market gardeners of the sub- 
urbs of Paris have learned the art of producing very fine 
pumpkins and squashes by allowing only one fruit to ripen 
on each vine. ‘They cultivate all the edible varieties and 
even the ornamental gourds. 
There are many varieties of the potiron, all of which 
have the shape of a more or less flattened sphere. The 
most highly valued varieties are: the mammoth, which 
often weighs more than 100 pounds; the large yellow 
Dutch, the flesh of which is two or three inches thick, solid, 
slightly sweet, and of a fine orange-yellow color; the 
Etampes red and the Boulogne gray, which are seen very 
frequently in the market gardens of southern France, and 
which differ from the preceding varieties by the greenish- 
gray color of the rind. The Monthlery bronze variety 
has a dark greenish-brown rind and yellow flesh of 
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