PUMPKIN AND SQUASH FOR STOCK-FEED ING. Cucurbita Pep, Linn., and C. maxima, Duch. Cueurbitacece. Figs. 763-764.
Varieties of pumpkin and squash are grown for stock-feeding. The Mammoth Chili is one of the large squashes and the Connecticut Field is the standard pumpkin, these being among the best kinds for feeding.
So long as hand labor was used in working corn it was a common practice to put a few pumpkins in with the corn; but, with the advent of machinery and of tillage until the corn plants are tall, the custom has rightly fallen into disrepute. It is a better practice, in most instances, to plant the crop by itself.
Culture.
A sandy loam soil is preferred. It should be in good condition and be given a deep fall-plowing. It may be marked off in checks 8 x 8 feet or 8 a 10 feet in the fall, and manure applied near where the hill is to be planted ; or this work may be done in spring. The manure is covered with soil, and some fertilizer may be added if deemed advisable. About three pounds of seed are planted per acre, and finally three or four plants are left in a hill. Constant cultivation is given until the spreading of the vines checks it.
The crop should be harvested and used or stored before severe freezing. For storage, the fruits should be carefully handled, not cracked or bruised, the stem left on, and kept in a dry and moderately warm cellar. Two or three mature fruits on a vine is considered to be a good crop and may give a yield of thirty or more tons per acre. Since the cost of production is small, this is often a very remunerative crop.
Uses.
Thus far the pumpkin has been viewed as rough age, as competing with silage in the ration. That this is the correct view does not appear to have been proved. The average analysis shows that its percentage composition is, water, 90.5 ; ash, 0.5 ; protein, 1.3 ; crude fiber, 1.7 ; nitrogen-free extract, 5.2; ether extract, 0.4. About 80 per
cent of the dry matter is regarded as digestible. Henry states, "For dairy cows the pumpkin is an excellent fall feed, none being more highly rel ished ; for swine in the first stages of fattening it is useful either fresh or cooked with meal." In feeding value, the pumpkins and squashes should rather be compared with roots and cabbages. It is probable that increased attention will be given to these crops, as more careful feeding practices are developed ; at present they are merely incidental crops so far as stock-feeding goes. This brief article is designed to call attention to this class of plants as feeding products.
Enemies.
The striped cucumber beetle may destroy the plants while young and the squash bug is some times a serious pest. The former is difficult to combat successfully. Arsenical poisons are effec tive, but injure the foliage. The best results gen erally follow the planting of an early trap crop of squash, which is sprayed with arsenical poisons. The main crop is then sprayed with Bordeaux mix ture. The squash bug is combated by keeping the fields free from rubbish, trapping with squash leaves and examining daily, and by hand-picking of the old bugs early in spring.
Literature.
Squashes : How to Grow Them, J. J. H. Gregory (1889), Orange Judd Company, New York ; Farmers' Cyclopedia of Agriculture, Wilcox & Smith, Orange Judd Company Principles of Vegetable-Gardening, L. II. Bailey, The Macmillan Company. For insects and diseases, New Jersey Experiment Station, Bul letin No. 94 ; New York State Experiment Station, Bulletins Nos. 75, 119: Massachusetts State Report, 1592, p. 225; same, 1890, p. 211. There is little literature on the growing of these plants for stock feeding; the above references are to horticultural writings chiefly.