SPECIALS IN GAltDEMNG. :^1'.) 



ticular neighborhood, and has at the same time a suitable soil and taste 

 for growing this tuber, then let him specialize with it. If his or her 

 talent, soil, and market incline to tomato growing, then make the tomato 

 your "mascot." 



THE MELON "SPECIAL" 



The melon is a "fruit" that is adapted to specialization very well, more 

 so perhaps than any other line of gardening. The melon requires a warm, 

 sandy loam for best results. A soil with plenty of humus in it, such as we 

 find from partially decayed vegetable mould in newly broken timber land 

 or prairie sod is very well suited to the melon. 



Several years ago I had about half an acre of ground that had recently 

 been in pasture. It was planted at first to strawberries, but owing to the 

 presence of numerous white grubs the plantation was abandoned. The 

 next spring I planted it to melons, mostly cantaloupes, with a few rows of 

 watermelons. The harvest of fruit from this half acre was very gratifying. 

 The rowdy men and boys of the town took their toll by night, and I gave 

 another tithe offering by day. Aside from this I had the pleasure of 

 marketing right at home a good surplus at generous prices. The patch 

 yielded me a gross return of between $90 and $100. Last season I took 

 advantage of another tract of sod land — second cropping — by planting to 

 melons. 



The "Rocky Fords" did especially well in both yield and quality. 

 They sold in competition with the Colorado brands at 40 to 75 cents per 

 dozen. 



I know a man near Bethany who has made a specialty of the water- 

 melon for several years. He selects new soils when possible that are 

 adapted to this fruit, planting some seasons as high as twenty acres. It 

 is true that he has to defend his patch at ripening time by special patrol- 

 men but if one were to judge by the wagonloads of melons the owner 

 brings to our market, there must be something more than a mere living in 

 the melon specials. 



OTHER SPECIALTIES 



Celery is a vegetable that requires more expert care and adaptation of 

 soil than any other plant that I am familiar with. The regular gardener 

 who attempts to grow it in connection with a full line of other vegetables 

 is quite sure to find it unprofitable. From personal experiences I am sure 

 that I had rather pay the retail price for the "Kalamazoo" article than 

 attempt to grow it in my own garden. 



Several years ago I bought a small tract of ground in Platte Center, 

 Neb., that by nature seemed just suited to the production of celery. The 

 man of whom I bought the ground had a twenty-acre field devoted to this 

 plant at the time of my purchase. His specialties were "celery and onions 

 in car lots." The tract of ground devoted to this industry had been recov- 

 ered from swamp lands by means of drainage ditches. Despite these 

 seeming favored conditions of soil and irrigation facilities, the growing of 

 this specialty was finally abandoned. There was too much risk because of 

 early fall freezes and diseases to which the celery is subject. 



