“The word pumpkin stands for good, old-fashioned pies, for Thanksgiving, for grandmother’s house.  It really brings more to mind than the word squash.  I suppose the squash is a bit more useful, when we think of the fine Hubbard, and the nice little crooked-necked summer squashes; but after all, I like to have more pumpkins.  And as for Jack-o’-lanterns—­why they positively demand pumpkins.  In planting these, the same general directions hold good which were given for melons.  And use these same for squash-planting, too.  But do not plant the two cousins together, for they have a tendency to run together.  Plant the pumpkins in between the hills of corn and let the squashes go in some other part of the garden.

“We have very nearly worn out the subject of radish.  About the only cultural point I would add is this:  Make radish develop quickly.  If growth is slow, the radish is likely to be poor.  Sometimes all the growth goes to top.  Fine, green leaves result, but no good radishes.  Then doctor the soil in order that fruit development may be quickened.  Radishes are the quickest in maturing of all vegetables.  That is why your teacher had radish beds for the lower grades in the school.  The children got a result and got it quickly.  Josephine might have raised radishes as well as parsley in the box garden she had.  People in cities could raise these two vegetables on their roofs just as well as not.  They are worth the effort it takes in trying.

“There is one point I wish to speak of in tomato culture.  The great trouble in cultivating comes in the overgrowth of vines.  Each plant becomes a large, overgrown, unwieldy sort of affair unless looked out for.  Use a stake for each vine.  Tie the main stalk of the plant to this.  Let the development of fruit come from the top of the plant.  So pinch back the lateral branches and remove these.  In this way the tomato garden is a neat and pretty one.  This treatment is similar to that given grapes.

“There is a tomato called the dwarf champion.  This is a dwarf variety and so gives less trouble than the other kinds.  It does not get troublesome and often does not need staking.  If you were little boys and girls, I should say plant this kind of tomato every time.

“I have little more to say about turnips.  They are an old vegetable, for over two thousand years ago, the Greeks dined on turnips.  I usually plant mine right out in the open.  The soil may be a sandy one.

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FLOWER CULTURE

In planting the flower garden there are a few things always to be considered.  These are matters of colour, of time and of persistency.  “The subject of colour is not so trying, after all, as many gardeners seem to think.  If you people wish to plant a few of a good many gay-blooming plants, then I guess colour is a problem.  The chief thought in a flower garden should be, how I can make a beautiful