AGRICULTURAL.

From the Nev England Farmer.
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 MR. EDTToR-Squashes, melons, and all other vines require good old manure i; nothing suits them better than vault ma nure, kept one year after it is taken out hogs manure is excellent. There should be, for squashes, five or six shovelfuls to each hill, distance about six feet; as the vines expand it will be very useful to check their growth for the benefit of the fruit It is generally placed on the side shoots, and only one squash should be permitted to grow on one side shoot, and as soop as the blossoming is over, the shoot should be stopped, by pinchiDg off the head of il. The main vines should be stopped after they have asufiicient number of side shoots and squashes. This kind of pruning will have a tendency to improve the size and quality of the fruit !; it is advisable to take offlate blossoms and small squashes which would not come to maturity before the white frosts take place, and which would injure the earlier and better fruit, by de- priving it of some of the nourishment.- When the latter part of the season comes on, aud the squashes have nearly comple- ted their growth,it is advisable to break off the leaves wherever they shade the fruit, in order that it should have the uninterrup- ted benefit of the sun, and to cut off freely the struggling vines, so that none should be left but those that bear fruit; this will hasten their maturity and perfection. The same system of pruning is still more need- full for musk melons; it will improve the flavor and the size of the fruit, and is, be- lieve, universally practised in the old coun- tries. The French always pinch oG the small top of the heart, at the earliest pcri- od, which they call chatrer, and which en- courages the growth of the slender side shoots, which are the fruit bearers. The ripening of melons is much hastened by placing under them, when about the size of an egg, large pieces of slate, stone or a shingle the melons are also kept from ground worms by this process. Although our soil and climate arc more powerful and forcing, and might dispense in some measure with these refnements of the gardeners art, yet they win repay we'll for the little time and attention required, and I have always found it my pleasure, and advantage, to attend to it regularly.

 Weston, May 1s, 1929. J. M. c.