258 



PUMPKIN. 



should rarely or never be amputated." — KnightPs Treatise 

 on the Culture of the Apple and Pear, 



" Hitt recommends that the shape or figure of standards 

 should be conical, like the natural growth of the fir-tree ; 

 and this form, or the pyramidal or sub-cylindrical, is deci- 

 dedly preferred by the French, and universally employed 

 by the Dutch. 



" The season for pruning. — For all the operations of 

 pruning, which are performed on the branches or shoots of 

 trees, it would appear the period immediately before, or 

 commensurate with, the rising of the sap, is the best." — 

 Loudon. 



" My practice has been to prune in the spring, beginning 

 when the buds have scarcely begun to swell, and ending 

 before the expansion of the leaves. But I never leave 

 ' stumps' of limbs. Every branch, that is taken away, is 

 cut close and even with the stem or limb where it grew ; 

 and the healing of the wound commences and proceeds 

 kindly as vegetation advances. If the branch cut off be 

 large, the wound should be covered with some kind of plas- 

 ter. ' ' — CoL Pickering, 



If, however, pruning is commenced at a proper stage of 

 the growth of the tree, and properly and seasonably attend- 

 ed to, it will rarely be necessary to take off a large limb, 

 and small ones, if cut close and smooth, meiy be taken off 

 any season. See remarks on pruning trees by a writer for 

 the N. E. Farmery vol. iii. p. 273. 



PUMPKIN. — Cucurbita pepo, — The pumpkin is a native 

 of India. Loudon says there are six species in cultivation, 

 but gives no description of them. Russell's Catalogue enu- 

 merates the following varieties : 



Finest yellow family pumpkin^ [ Mammoth, {wJiich have grown 



Connecticut field; to 226 lbs. weight,) 



Large cheese. Seven years, {ajine sort to keep.] 



Pumpkins will grow on any kind of soil, which is proper 

 for head-crops, but the land cannot be made too rich for 

 them. The Farmer^s Assistant thinks they will grow better, 

 when planted by themselves, than when raised, as usual, 

 with Indian corn. " The hills, in such case, should stand 

 about seven feet apart each way, and a number of seeds 

 should be planted in each hill, to make allowance for w^hat 

 may be destroyed by insects. It will be well, however, to 

 protect them by frames, covered by gauze, as directed, 

 ' 91^ under the article Cucumber. 



