STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 201 



" Your melons are certainly far superior to any other variety ever offered in this market." 



We suppose it to he a hybrid, which has improved in our hands, and it is our purpose 

 to strive to make the good better, and by selecting the choicest specimens for 6eed, to 

 work them up into a single type. 



Last season we planted in May, and made our first shipment on the 30th of July ; this 

 would seem to indicate that the variety is nearly or quite as early as any other. 



The melon may be described as round, regularly ribbed ; size, large six to nine inches 

 In diameter. Entire surface thickly and roughly netted. Flesh light green, thick, melt- 

 ing, sugary and highly perfumed. 



The qualities which recommend it are — productiveness, beauty, size, firmness of 

 flesh, delicious flavor, and long bearing season. It is unhesitatingly pronounced " un- 

 egnaled as a shipping variety." 



Last season, only two parties — one in Texas and one in Southern Illinois — received 

 the seed, both of whom reported satisfactory results. 



This winter and spring we have distributed the melon far and wide, in every state and 

 territory, between the Atlantic and Pacific coasts, and the melon will be subjected to 

 most trying tests. 



In regard to cultivation. "We select a light, dry and moderately rich soil, in which 

 there is a considerable amount of sand, and enough of clay. The preparation is deep 

 and thorough — the soil finely pulverized. The planting is eight feet by five, a dozen or 

 more seeds to the hill — some for the bugs, and finally thinned to two or three plants. 



The cultivation, of course, is clean, and in every way perfect, for how else can we 

 grow a good thing ? 



It will probably pay to pinch the runners, if you do it early; and by early, we mean, 

 almost as soon as the runners begin to show themselves — when they are no longer than 

 your finger. If this attention is delayed till the vines are two or three feet long, it is 

 labor thrown away. 



But upon this point, as well as upon many others, we shall experiment. more fully, 

 and report in due time, if any thing is developed worth knowing. We shall make thor- 

 ough trial of Baugh's Raw Bone Super Phosphate of Lime, and other special fertilizers, 

 on our melons this spring. In the mean time, we shall watch with interest the success 

 which others are having with the " Alton Large Nutmeg." 



0. L. BARLER. 



Upper Axton, III., March 25, 1869. 



R. S. GRAHAM ON THE GRAPE. 



Carmi, White Co., III., Sept. 23, 1868. 



I have thought for some time that I would " drop you a line," relative to a grape vine 

 I have, tin- name or variety of which I know nothing. 



It has been bearing five or six years, and has never yet missed two crops each year, 

 (however, one year the second crop got frost bitten.) It is situated as follows : It is 

 planted by the ell of my house, at a post of the porch, say ten feet from the main build- 

 ing ; has two stalks, one trained along the main building, and the other along the porch ; 

 the vines are very long, and very thrifty. I have been in the habit of trimming in March, 

 and then all through the early summer, as I thought the vine requires. 



