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the Falls with it ; and they told me it was the best melon we could get hold of. I grow that 

 exclusively as a musk-melon. Of water-melons I grow principally now a variety that is 

 called, I think, Haskell's Excelsior. It is a large-sized, mottled melon of very good 

 quality. I tried this year a new one called the Cuban Queen. It is said to be of enor- 

 mous size, though this last season it was so diy that it did not grow with me very large. 

 I think the largest one I had weighed about 25 pounds. They claim to have raised it in 

 the States to weigh 80 pounds. It is a red-flesh, very fine melon, and vei-y thin-skinned. 

 It would be a very fine melon for amateurs ; but it is rather tender to handle for ship- 

 ping. I have tried the Mountain Sweet, which is a very good melon. The Gypsy is a 

 very large melon, but a little too late for this climate. I find the Excelsior is hardly 

 equal to it in size ; but it is earlier, and in quality fully as good. With regard to the 

 method of cultivation, I generally make my land as rich as possible. I do not know that 

 you can get it too rich for melons. The great secret in growing them is to keep them 

 cultivated ; if you hoe them every other day it is to their benefit. 



Mr. GoTT. — Do you manure the whole surface of the ground, or simply the hills 

 where the roots are "? 



Mr. Smith.- — I put the manure in the hill. 



Mr. BuCKE. — How early do you have them ? 



Mr. Smith. — Generally about the middle of August, sometimes a little earlier, and 

 sometimes a little later. It depends upon the location. 



Mr. GoTT. — What distance do you plant apart, and do you practice pruning the 

 vines '? 



Mr. Smith. — No ; I never practice pruning to any extent. In the last hoeing, if 

 some of the leaders are getting out a little too long, I sometimes crop them off with the 

 hoe. I generally put them from seven to eight feet apart. 



Mr. BucKE. — Do you allow them to fertilize naturally ; or do you assist fertilization 1 



Mr. Smith. — Just naturally. 



Mr. Beadle. — It is claimed by some that if you will pinch the running vine after it 

 starts out and has got to be two or three feet in length, and compel it to branch, you will 

 get fruit much earlier, it will set much earlier than if you allow it to run on until it sets 

 its fruit. I thought perhaps Mr. Smith would throw some light upon that point. 



Mr. Dempsey. — I have tried pruning in that way. We generally pinch the ends when 

 they start to run, particularly in the musk-melons. Some growers pretend that it pays 

 to pinch the vine before it starts to run, and that several branches will start from the 

 same plant ; but I think it pays better to let it run about twelve inches or something 

 near that. Some will be eighteen and some six inches, because when we go there to 

 pinch them we don't do it all at once. That induces laterals to start out from every 

 joint. I have seen stems that were not pinched run six or eight feet before there would 

 be a blossom that would produce fruit, and then if it was not pinched that fruit would 

 fail. We do not prune them, only pinch the tip. All of the fruit would lie then near 

 the roots. The hills we plant generally eight feet apart, which gives ample room to get 

 around yovir hill ; and it is none too much space either, from the fact that you will find 

 if you examine the soil that these roots actually meet, and in fact more than meet — they 

 cross each other. The whole of the soil will be occupied a little below the surface of the 

 musk-melon land with the roots. Consequently it will be necessary to fertilize the whole 

 of the land. I do not like too high manuring for melon culture. We simply use a 

 handful of salt in the hole, and a little ashes. Gypsum is a very good thing, and we 

 like it and some bone dust. We do not use much stable manure for our musk-melons. 

 For water-melons we generally use superphosphate — ^just a handful of it. I would 

 rather have a loose, sandy soil than a very rich loamy soil to grow water-melons. If you 

 are going to be successful in growing water-melons you must select a very warm spot. 

 If possible, select a piece of ground that is protected from the north and west. Cultivated 

 on such soil I find no difficulty whatever in obtaining melons of large size and delicious 

 flavour ; and they ripen sutficiently early. I never saw a man cultivate his melons too 

 much. It will pay to cultivate them every day, if it can be done — the soil between them. 

 The musk-melon should never be cultivated deep, however, after they begin to vine, from 

 the fact tliat the roots run very close to the surface, and they do not require any root- 



