File:The field and garden vegetables of America (Page 205) (6002641544).jpg

THE PUMPKIN.
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well. It is, however, exceedingly liable to hybridize with all
the varieties of the family, and is with difficulty preserved
in an unmixed condition. It should be grown as far apart as
possible from all others, especially when the seed raised is
designed for sale or for reproduction at home.
Sugar-Pumpkin.
Small Sugar-pumpkin.
Plant similar in its character and general appearance to the
Common Field Pumpkin ; fruit small, eight or nine inches at
its broadest diameter, and about six inches in depth ; form
much depressed, usually broadest
near the middle, and more or less dis-
tinctly ribbed; skin bright orange-
yellow when the fruit is well ripened,
hard, and shell-like, and not easily
broken by the nail ; stem quite long,
greenish, furrowed, and somewhat
reticulated ; flesh of good thickness,
light-yellow, very fine-grained, sweet,
and well flavored ; seeds of smaller
size than, but in other respects similar
to, those of the Field Pumpkin. The variety is the smallest
of the sorts usually employed for field cultivation. It is, how-
ever, a most abundant bearer, rarely fails in maturing its crops
perfectly, is of first-rate quality, and may be justly styled an
acquisition. For pies, it is not surpassed by any of the family ;
and it is superior for table use to many of the garden squashes.
The facility with which it hybridizes or mixes with other
kinds renders it extremely difficult to keep the variety pure ;
the tendency being to increase in size, to grow longer or
deeper, and to become warty : either of which conditions may
be considered an infallible evidence of deterioration.
Varieties sometimes occur more or less marbled and spotted
with green ; the green, however, often changing to yellow
after harvesting.