HOME VEGETABLE GARDENING 
PUMPKIN 
A S THE largest and rankest growing member of the 
large gourd family, pumpkins rarely fit into the 
scheme of the average home garden. They should rather 
be considered a farm crop and as such they are generally 
grown in the cornfield. 
Pumpkin plants are warmth-loving plants and will not 
do well where the nights remain cool throughout the sum- 
mer. As natives of this country they thrive to perfec- 
tion in all parts where frost does not disturb vegetation 
between the end of May and the end of September. 
Some kinds develop during a shorter growing season. 
But these neither grow very large nor is their flesh of the 
fine quality found in the choicer, later sorts. 
Pumpkin plants require very rich soil or the crop will 
be undersized. The seeds sprout strongly in thoroughly 
warm soil and the plants thrive vigorously, smothering- 
out all small weeds. How to raise prize-winning pump- 
kins is told on pages 245-248. 
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