BULLETIN OF THE BUSSEY INSTITUTION. 93 
the other crop; but, in this country, pumpkins are commonly grown in 
conjunction with maize, as an interpolated crop, which receives no 
special care or attention other than what it may get incidentally from 
the cultivation of the corn. The common practice is to put in one or 
two pumpkin seeds here and there, when the corn is sown, at certain 
rather wide intervals throughout the field, and to leave the vines to 
take care of themselves, with perhaps an occasional effort to protect 
them from the beetles which are liable to attack the young plants. 
It often happens that by this careless method a ton of pumpkins to 
the acre may be harvested in addition to an abundant crop of corn. 
The popular impression seems to be, that the pumpkin crop is not 
one specially liable to exhaust the land, and the corn crop is not sup- 
posed to suffer much from the presence of the pumpkins, except that 
the vines are apt to shade the corn plants, and to hinder the grain 
from filling and ripening by obstructing the rays of the sun.* The 
Significance of the pumpkin crop in this particular connection may be 
made to appear by contrasting the chemical composition of the pump- 
kin with that of the corn-stalks that are harvested at the same time. 
The composition of the dry matter in maize straw, and the so-called 
nitrogen ratio, are given below, after Wolff’s tables, in the first line 
of figures, and the composition of pumpkin flesh is given in the 
second line. 
Carbohydrates Ratio of Albuminoids 
Albuminoids. (including fat). Cellulose. Ash. to Carbohydrates. 
3.49 45.35 46.51 4.65 pias 
12.63 61.65 15.26 10.46 1:4.9 
Whence it appears that for feeding animals the pumpkin is in some 
sense complementary to maize straw. In other words, the pumpkin, 
even if we consider its flesh alone, is competent to supply a good part 
of the albuminoid matters which the cornstalks lack. It is to be 
remembered, moreover, that both the rind and the seeds of the pump- 
kin are exceptionally rich in nitrogen; and, though the value of these 
refuse portions is questionable, it seems but fair to allow something 
on their account in favor of the vegetable, for it is not to be supposed 
that the albuminoids in pumpkin rind are wholly indigestible, or that 
the seeds can never be fed to animals with advantage. I am indebted 
to my assistant, Mr. D. S. Lewis, for much labor in this research. 
* Compare “New England Farmer,” 1845, 24. 155. 
