As a rule squash, melons, cucumbers and the like will not transplant. It often happens that about all of the seed planted in some hills will germinate and make strong plants while other hills will have but one or two plants and it is desired to transplant some of the extra plants into hills where they are needed; attempts to do this with a trowel invariably fail; it is possible, however, to transplant an entire hill—or a part of one if spaced far enough apart, by passing a spade down into the ground at a sufficient distance from the plant to avoid disturbing the roots and lifting a large spadeful of earth with the plants. The hill that is to receive them should have been prepared in advance so that the earth may slide off the spade into the hole without disturbing or breaking it in the least; the soil should not be pressed down as this would have a tendency to crumble, but any space about it should be filled in carefully and water poured around it. Squash or other vines moved in this way invariably live and go on growing without any appreciable setback. A considerable patch of winter squash—the Delicious—was entirely secured by taking up plants that had come up self sown in various places; somewhere some immature squash were left in the garden the fall before; some came from the frame around a standpipe in the barnyard which was filled with coal ashes. How the squash came to come up in that unusual place is unknown, but there were a number of nice plants and these were lifted on the spade and carried—a spadeful at a time—and planted where they were wanted and the entire patch was very thrifty and bore abundantly.
Spraying, hand picking and attention to cultivation are essential in growing squash as with other garden crops. The dust-mulch is the one certain assurance against failure.
The Hubbard Squash, both Golden and Warted, have long been standard sorts, but both have lost, through much careless breeding, the qualities which distinguished them—dryness and sweetness. It is practically impossible of late years to find an individual of either variety that is really dry or sweet or that has keeping qualities equal to the early sorts. In the Delicious we have a much superior squash whose dryness is notable and sweetness all that one could desire, even small, immature specimens possess the quality in high degree. Unless one has home grown seed from a Hubbard that was perfect in these qualities I should advise planting the seed of Delicious and saving one's own seed from the best specimen of that.
SUMMER SQUASH
Then there are all the varieties of summer squashes—Summer Crookneck, Giant Summer Crookneck, the Vegetable Marrows, and the several bush forms, which are a boon to the small kitchen garden as they take little room and are always within bounds; they include the Bush Fordhook, used as a summer squash when green, or ripe, a good keeper, often lasting until the next season's crop is ready. The Mammoth White Bush or Patty Pan, Early Yellow Bush, Early Golden Bush and Bush English Marrow are all good sorts—either cooked and mashed or egged and fried like eggplant. All require the same general treatment and all bear heavily and early. The summer squash are planted in the open ground any time that is suitable for planting corn. To guard against loss by seed decaying in the ground if the season is wet, set the seeds on edge, instead of laying them flat; this is advisable with all flat seeds of pronounced size; cover half an inch and mark the hills so that cultivation can commence at once. Covering the hills with frames will save much work in combating insects or a cap of window screening will be effectual; this is made from a round piece of netting with a slit on one side from center to edge to allow its being bent in a tent shape. A stick should be fastened to it to hold it together and anchor it to the ground; this can be easily arranged by taking a piece of wood four or five inches longer than the cap and splitting it half its length, inserting the wire where it laps into the split and thrusting the free end into the ground. These little caps are very practical as they can be flattened out and laid away when no longer required, occupying very little space to store and for that reason are preferable to the boxes.
Squash vines may be kept from growing too rampant by shortening the branches. They should always be pinched back as soon as they have made a foot, or less, of growth and when fruit is well set on the vines the ends may be severely cut back to insure the early maturity of the fruit already set. I have removed branches several feet long and bearing half-grown squash from vines of the English marrow without the least ill effect and have no doubt that similar treatment would be well borne by the Hubbard or other winter squash, and so save much useless growth and conserve the strength of the vine for the main crop of squash and, perhaps, induce a dryer, sweeter product.
SWEET POTATOES
The easiest way to raise one's own sweet potatoes is to buy already started plants of the market gardeners who make a business of starting them for sale; but if one prefers to plant the tubers and raise one's own plants, and the potatoes are available—which seldom is the case unless one has kept them over in a warm cellar buried in sand—then the potatoes are cut the same as Irish potatoes, one eye to a piece, and started in a warm hotbed in April. Before planting the pieces of potato it is a wise precaution to dip each piece in sulphur to protect against black rot. The plants should not be set out in the open ground until the nights are warm and all danger of frost is passed. The hills should be three feet apart each way at least as the vines make quite a rank growth. Warm, sandy soil, well fertilized, is necessary and a trowelful of poultry droppings may be added to each hill for good results. Cultivate thoroughly and often and when the vines become too long to make cultivating convenient they may be lifted and coiled around the top of the hill, the hill, by the way, not being a hill at all in the common acceptance of the term but merely a level space devoted to the growing of the potato. It is quite important that the ground immediately about the plant be kept clean, so that when the vines are coiled up they need not be again disturbed to remove weeds.
The space between the plants should be kept mellow and free from weeds throughout the growing season. Sweet potatoes are quite as easy to grow as Irish potatoes, easier, in fact, as they have fewer enemies and are not attacked by the potato beetle. They are more difficult to keep, however, and should be stored in boxes of dry sand in a warm, dry cellar over winter.