VOT T WYTTT Published Weekly by The Rural Publlibing Co., 
» 333 w 30th 8t New Tork price Qne Dollar a Year. 
NEW YORK. NOVEMBER 15, 1924. 
Entered as Second-Class Matter, June 2, 1879, at the Post NO 4821 
Office at New York. N. Y., under the Act of March 3, 1879. 
Here’s 
a New One; The Pumpkin Crop 
GING CONDITIONS.—This is an age 
a new crops and new methods are be- 
forced upon the farmer, whether he 
ts them or not. Psychology is playing 
rt in this industrial change. As people 
regate and crowd together in thickly 
settled communities, new desires are created. 
The attempt to satisfy these desires creates new 
business. Take, for example, the lowly pumpkin. 
Dow would old-timers in New Jersey have regarded 
one who claimed that a time would come when 
pumpkins would he regarded' as a profitable luxury 
crop. Those old-timers planted a few pumpkin 
seeds in the cornfield and harvested a fair crop. A 
few were used for pumpkin and milk, a few were 
sold, and the rest fed to the stock. It was a side 
line—very much to one side. 
NOW A LUXURY.—Now comes Cornelius Kevitt 
of Pompton, N. J., who has dignified the pumpkin by 
making it a standard crop. It is not what you may 
call a food crop, either. People come and buy them 
for Hallowe'en performances. Probably most of 
them are made into jack-o’-lanterns by eager chil¬ 
dren who have been told what their ancestors used 
to do. That is what we mean by the help which 
psychology gives in changing crops and methods. 
GROWING THE CROP.—Mr. Kevitt estimates liis 
crop at 5,000 salable pumpkins, grown in the old 
way of planting among the corn. This will be hard 
to believe by a great many farmers who have ex¬ 
perienced such complete failure by this method. 
Nevertheless Mr. Kevitt proves that it can be done. 
The field of five acres, covered with a generous 
dressing of barnyard manure, was plowed deep and, 
well cultivated, made the sandy loam soil an ex¬ 
cellent seedbed. Marked both ways 3 ft. 4 in. apart, 
Mr. Kevitt planted somewhat differently from the 
old practice of a few pumpkin seeds in every third 
or fourth hill of corn. Instead, he planted every 
third row across the field entirely of pumpkins. 
The merit of this we can readily see, giving the 
pumpkin vine more ground to itself, also allowing 
more sunshine. 
SELLING DIRECT.—Mr. Kevitt’s farm is located 
on the Paterson-Hamburg turnpike, one of New Jer¬ 
sey’s busy thoroughfares, consequently he has a pros¬ 
perous road-stand trade. With the advantage of the 
wholesale markets at Newark and Paterson, he is 
fortunately favored by good selling conditions, and 
is enthusiastic over the genuine profits from his 
pumpkins, which he thinks will exceed those of any 
one of his other crops. 
A FINE CROP.—On September 15 Mr. Kevitt 
walked through his field to note the condition of 
growth, and was indeed surprised over the prolific 
settings of fruit. He noticed two pumpkins on sepa¬ 
rate vines, though near each other, of exceptional 
growth for so early in the season, and decided to 
give them -some identification markings, that he 
might watch their progress. With his pocketknife 
he carved “Coolidge and Dawes” on one, “Davis and 
Bryan” on the other. At that time they were of 
nearly the same size. Fig. 592 shows the later de¬ 
velopment. The pictures show the crop and some of 
its surroundings. This “come-back” of an old farm 
friend is quite remarkable in these days when fruits 
and vegetables from faraway points are being rushed 
into our markets. It would seem to show that 
deeply cut into the minds of most of our Americans 
The New Jersey Pumpkin Farmers Roadside Stand. Fig. 5S9. 
