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For a long time, perhaps almost since the time that the Indians showed the American colonists how to grow pumpkins in the cornfields, squashes have been used for food. While preferences for different varieties change with localities and persons, summer squashes are very extensively and quite frequently included in the bill of fare for two or three months in the summer. In spite of the rather general use of this vegetable, a review of the literature revealed very little information concerning its vitamin content and this study was therefore undertaken to accumulate such data.

During recent years numerous investigations have been undertaken to determine the possibility of regulating the rate of development of economic plants. Various chemicals have been sprayed onto fruit trees and small fruit bushes to delay blossoming until the danger of late frost has passed. The foliage of root crops, such as potatoes, onions, carrots, and beets, have been sprayed with a variety of substances to inhibit o r prevent the root crops from sprouting during winter storage. Attempts have been made to eliminate undesirable plant growth such as suckers on commercial tobacco plants. Studies have shown that the rate of physiological processes in harvested crops may be retarded by chemical treatments: for example, sugar beets stockpiled awaiting processing may also lose as much as a pound of sugar per ton per day, but spraying the sugar beet foliage two t o six weeks before harvest with maleic hydrazide slowed down the metabolic processes and conserved the sugar content of the beets. .The literature contains references to the applicatioii of maleic hydrazide for all the conditions noted above, but few data regarding the composition of f niits and vegetables produced by plants previously treated with maleic liydrazide have been found. This study was undertaken to determine the composition of Butternut squashes from vines that had been sprayed with maleic hydrazide a short time before harvest. EXPERIMENTALThe Butternut squashes (Cucurhita moschata Duclicsne) in this study were from vines raised on Connecticut valley alluvial soil, which was treated with a commercial 10-10-10 fertilizer a t the rate of 900 pouiids per acre. The vines were grown under normal commercial cultural conditions including frequent dnsting, with a n insecticide eontnining neutral copper (7% metallic copper), rotenone, and prophyllite, during t h e early growing season to repel the various bugs that infest squash vines.The climatic conditions during the growing wason were : rainfall, 17.99 inches ; 761 hours of briglit sunshine ; average trmpetature, FD"F. ; average relative humidity, 76.570. The rainfall during the 41 days previous to harvesting the squashes was 6.8 inches, which was distributed as follows: August 1G, 1.75 inches; August 21, O . i R inches; Septembcr 1, 1.80 inches; Srptemlicr 3, 0.10 inches; September 15, 0.65 inches; Septeniber 19, 1.88 inches; Septemher 23, 0.10 inches; and Septcmber 26, 0.07 inches.On Septemher G the squash field was divided into sii)Jscctions, and 2 concentrations of m:tleic hydrazidc, 0.05% and 0.25%, were spraJed a t the ratc of IGO gallons per acre on the experimental plots; other plots were rcsei\ed as eontrols. Apparently the maleic h y d r a h k solutions did not damage the squash vincs seriously, for the foliage rrninined nearly normal. On September 1 G and Z G , the scjuashes were removed froni the vines. Thus, each concentration of nialeic hydrazide solution was sprayed onto squash vines 10 days and 20 days before the squashes were harvested. a Contribution No. 917, Massachusetts AgricuJtura...