The Opelousas courier., 1889-07-06
RAISING SOUASHES.
Information on Points Not Fully UndI
stood by Farmers.

Information ON Points Not Fully Under.
stood by Farmers.
The squash is indigenous to the trop-
ical climates and to the warmer por-
tions of the temperate zones, so that
in our latitude they require very hot
seasons to grow them successfully.
While taste for squash. like that for
tomato and banana, seems to be a mat
ter of education, yet dealers who are
in position to know say that the squash
ranks next to the potato in popularity,
more especially in the larger cities.
The ordinary method of digging
holes in odd corners and out-of-the-
way places and then filling the holes
with manure in which to plant
squashes is time poorly spent, for the
result is seldom satisfactory. After
the vine has made a growth of a few
feet, and has set a few squashes, it is
checked in its growth, turns yellow
and dies, the roots having in vain en-
deavored to penetrate the ground sur
rounding the hole in which they are
growing. AS to how far the roots of a
squash vine will extend, it is my belief
that the roots of the squash vine will
extend as far under ground as the vine
extends on the ground above.
The great error in c%ultivating the
squash is to starve it; another is to
give all the food necessary without al
tGwing room for extra growth of the
vine under high cultivation. The best
results may be obtained by scattering
the manure after blowing the ground.
1t should then be thoroughly incor-
porated with the soil. Commercial
manures are preferable to stable ma
nure for manuring in the hill, from the
fact that they contain no seed. and will
give the young plant a quick start,
while the manure which has beey
worked into the soil about the plant
will be held in reserve and be efficient
in maturing the crop.
Thorough mixing Of fertilizers with
the soil is important; a top dressing of
well-rotted manure or superphosphate
OF lime is relished by the we after the
runners begin to show. Hills should
be from eight to twelve feet apart, &C.
cording to the variety planted. Squash
vines are susceptible to the slightest
injury Or disturbance, and. as a rule,
it is better to allow weeds which
spring up near the end of the season
to remain than to disturb the vines in
attempting to pull them up and cut
them of. No person should be allowed
to pass through OF even set foot in the
squash patch, after the squashes have
commenced setting.
Squashes mix in their seeds, but the
effect does not become apparent until
the seeds are planted and squashes
are produced the following season;
thus it will be seer that seed taken
from squashes. which may yield acrop
where every specimen grown may show
marks of impurity. 1t is important
that the laws of admixture may be un-
derstood, that the risk incidental to
planting seeds that look pure should
be more generally known. No matter
Few many varieties may be planted
together, no crossing. from the result
of that planting will be seer in the ex-
ternal color, shape or appearance the
same senson.
To have squash seed pure the
squashes from which they are taken
must have been grown in an isolated
locality. Where different varieties are
grown in the same locality, and it is
desired to keep any one variety pure,
it may be accomplished by preventing
any male flowers of the other varieties
from maturing. The fruit from any
particular blossom may be kept pure
by covering with a screen, removing
only to fertilize with poller from a male
flower of its own vine. Many people
profess to classify ~squashes as to male
female from their appearance of the
calyx end of the squash. This is i'm
possible, as every individual seed in
every squash contains the two sexes in
itself in its capacity to produce male
and female iowers-Chicago Inter-
Ocean.
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