FORTIETH ANNUAL REPORT. 99 



Ml'. Rose — I don't know. T liave some bnt I am not in the seed Imsi- 

 ness. I could funii^li a limited amount of seed. I sold it on my canta- 

 loupe deal and left the gentlemen with some Of these varieties on hand. 

 Perhaps tou can get some of it from the experiment station in Indiana. 

 There is a man by the name of Richard Ready at Decker, Ind., from 

 Avhom I think seed can be had. ^^'e worked together and he has quite a 

 quantity of it I think. 



Q. Did you ever have an.y trouble with i>lants damping off in the hot 

 bed? 



Mr. Rose — That is all caused by growing your plants too wet — having 

 too much dampness and not giving your Hat frames enough ventilation. 

 Another thing, if the fungais gets in that w'iW do some damage but we 

 spray Avith Bordeaux ^lixture which relieves the situation from that 

 standpoint. 



Q. What strength of Bordeaux do you use? 



Mr. Rose— The standard 4-G-40. 



Q. Have you ever trans])lanted melons from seed beds into boxes? 



Mr. Rose — ^^^e do that. You need not have one vacant box in one of 

 your beds. I have my fellows scatter out some seed and cover them up 

 and they come up and when we find a vacant box we set them out and 

 puddle them in and they will grow. 



Q. Do you find that plants thus transplanted once are stronger or 

 weaker than the plant that grows in a box? 



Mr. Rose — We have transplanted whole beds and w^e could see no 

 difference in the end. 



Q. Do you think it improves the melon to plant different varieties? 



Mr. Rose — We don't want to mix varieties. I have never allowed dif- 

 ferent varieties to gi'OAV together. A cantaloupe has to be fertilized and 

 you will fail to get this fertilization unless the insect works. I keep 

 bees. I- don't work them for honey. I like to have them around my 

 cantalou])e field. 



Q. How do you handle the striped beetle? 



Mr. Rose — We kill him whenever we can. They are a peculiar bug. 

 We see no signs of them today and tomorrow we are full of them. We 

 had 180 acres — 70 acres in one block — south of us was a lot of growers. 

 The bugs got in on them. Their fields were fairly alive with them. I 

 stopped every man working and sent to the drug store and got every bit 

 of sulphur that he had. I got all the turpentine and carbolic acid, 

 that could be had and this mixture was put on a large quantity of dust 

 that we collected. Then we got shakers and went over the fields and 

 shook this stuff over the vines. There Avas air slacked lime on hand and 

 Ave found that when we used this in connection Avith the other that the 

 bugs Avould not stay on the' vines. You cannot driA'e them against the 

 Avind. but this prompt action on our part had the effect of driving them 

 away and Ave had no further trouble AvhUe the parties who had the bugs 

 south of us had to jdant all their seed over, 



Q. I have heard that moth balls Avould drive them out. 



Mr. Rose — I do not think they Avill. 



Q. We are troubled with the vin.es dying off Avhen they get abouf 

 one-third groAvu ; Avhen the little melons are about as big as hen's 

 eggs. We thought it Avas due to the ravages of the squash bug. 



Mr. Rose — If you have no melon bugs, you will haAe no melon wilt, 

 Y^our melons will appear all right at night but in the morning they are 



