mmer varieties have a hard shell, when matured. They are usually eaten
entire, outside, seeds and all, while young and tender, from one quarter
to almost full grown. They are also used as a fall and winter squash,
rejecting the shell and that portion of the inside which contains the
seeds. The _Summer Crookneck_, and _Summer Scolloped_, both _white_ and
_yellow_, are the principal summer squashes. The finest is the _White
Scolloped_. The best winter varieties are the _Acorn_, _Valparaiso_,
_Winter Crookneck_, and _Vegetable Marrow_ or _Sweet Potato squash_. The
latter is the best known.

Cultivate as melons, but leave only two plants in a hill. They do best
on new land. Varieties should be grown far apart, and far removed from
pumpkins, as they mix very easily, and at a great distance. Bugs eat
them worse than any other garden vegetable. The only sure remedy is the
box covered with gauze or glass. As they are great runners, they do
better with their ends clipped off. Used as a vegetable for the table,
and in the same manner as pumpkins, for pies.

STRAWBERRY.

None of our small fruits are more esteemed, or more easily raised, and
yet none more frequently fails. Failures always result from
carelessness, or the want of a little knowledge of the best methods of
cultivation. We omit much that might be said of the history and uses of
the strawberry, and confine ourselves to a few brief directions, which,
if strictly followed, will render every cultivator uniformly successful.
No one need ever fail of growing a good crop of strawberries. In 1857,
we saw plats of strawberries in Illinois, in the cultivation of which
much money had been expended, and which were remarkably promising when
in blossom, but which did not yield the cultivators five dollars' worth
of fruit. In the language of the proprietors, "they blasted."
Strawberries never blast; but, for the want of fertilizers at suitable
distances, they may not fill. There are but three causes of
failure--want of fertilizers, excessive drought, and allowing the vines
to become too thick. Of most of our best varieties, the blossoms are of
two kinds--pistillate and staminate, or male and female--and they are
essential to each other. The pistillate plants bear the fruit, and the
staminates are the fertilizers, without which the pistillates will be
fruitless. There are three kinds of blossom--pistillate, staminate, and
perfect, as seen in the cut.

[Illustration: 1. Perfect b