No. 7. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 607 



each row of melons before the melons need the space. Care should 

 be taken not to plant the seeds too deep. An inch and a half is deep 

 enough in light soils, while an inch is better with our heavier soils. 



By sowing seeds in hotbeds and transplanting to the field it is 

 possible to gain one or two weeks in the ripening season. Great 

 care and attention is necessary, however, to grow the plants strong 

 and healthy in the frames and in transplanting them to the open 

 ground. The melon is a plant that does not like to have its root 

 system disturbed and as a result^ careless planting often checks the 

 plant to such an extent that it is a fit subject for disease or insects 

 and if it succeeds in living at all it shows the eft'ect of the check 

 throughout the season. 



After the plants are up, or immediately after transplanting, they 

 should receive constant cultivation to check all weeds and to conserve 

 moisture. Shallow cultivation should be kept up until the growth of 

 the vines prevent. Hand weeding and hoeing must often be re- 

 sorted to to keep weeds from occupying the space needed by the 

 melon vines. 



After sowing the seed or transplanting the young seedlings from 

 the hotbed to the open ground we must be prepared to fight insects 

 and disease. The striped cucumber beetle is probably the worst 

 enemy of the plant during its first stages of growth. Various 

 remedies have been used and recommended but probably the most 

 valuable .of all is Bordeaux mixture as its presence on plants is 

 distasteful to the beetles especially if some poison like Paris green 

 or arsenate of lead is added. Bordeaux mixture at 4-4-50 strength 

 with one-half pound of Paris green or two pounds of arsenate of 

 lead will effectively control the beetle. 



The one objection to this mixture, however, seems to be that it 

 should not be used until the plants begin to vine as it has a ten- 

 dency to check the growth of young plants. Tobacco dust with 

 powdered arsenate of lead added forms a very reliable repellant up 

 to the time the Bordeaux can be used. It is a question with me 

 just how many beetles die from the eff'ect of the poison, probably 

 a few but to my mind this mixture does more to keep them away 

 than to kill and they are expert at dodging sprayed or dusted plants. 

 For this reason, trap plants may be left untreated for them to feed 

 on until this period of danger is past. Clean culture in the fall also 

 serves to destroy winter hiding places for the beetles. 



The melon aphis is the other serious pest that must be fought. It 

 is advisable to watch the young plants closely and pull up and 

 burn if only a few plants are attacked. These insects are somewhat 

 difficult to combat as they work on the under side of the leaves and 

 must be killed by a contact spray. A ten per cent, solution of kero- 

 sene emulsion sprayed on the under side of the leaves with good 

 force will successfully c(mtrol the aphis, but the great difficulty 

 seems to be in hitting all of them and thev must be hit to be killed. 



Rust is the worst fungous disease of the melon and a great deal 

 of attention is being paid to the breeding of a rust resistant va- 

 riety. At the i)resent time a variety known as Pollock seems to 

 be showing up quite well along this line. All experiments, how- 

 ever, tend to show that this disease can be successfully controlled 

 by spraying with Bordeaux mixture (4-4-5) or (4-5-50). The first 

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