36i! MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



PROTECTING VINES, ETC.— (A DISCUSSION.) 



Mr. C. L. Smith : I have a little matter that I would like to 

 have appear upon our records, if the society thinks best, be- 

 cause jt is a matter that has attracted some attention. In 

 farmers' institute work, when it first began, something like 

 seven years ago. the question of protecting squashes and 

 melons from bugs came up, and I carried an arrangement with 

 me one season, which I had used successfully, and exhibited it 

 at the institutes. Afterwards I published a description of it, 

 and the reports have been so satisfactory that I want to intro- 

 duce it to the society. During the winter, I make up a lot of 

 boxes like this one I hold in my hand, and, as far as I can, I 

 cover them with glass. If I cannot aiford to cover them with 

 glass, I use cloth. The cost of the boxes is merely nominal, 

 almost nothing. They will not cost over three cents apiece, 

 aside from the work of making them, and that can be done 

 during the winter. This box with a glass 12x12 inches costs 

 me less than ten cents; and I use these boxes to protect my 

 melons. 



I make the hills for the melons as soon as the frost is out of 

 the ground, and, then, about the first of May, I plant my 

 melon seeds in the hills, just as I would for field cultiva- 

 tion; and set these boxes over the hilJs and keep them there 

 until the melon vines fill the boxes full. Then I lift them up 

 and give them air, but I keep the boxes on the ground until all 

 danger from frost has passed. If there should be a frost and 

 it should kill the vines outside of the box, it does not seem to 

 do any particular harm to the rest of them. By practicing 

 this method, I get melons from two to three weeks earlier than 

 they can be grown in open ground. The first melon from each 

 hill will always sell in any community for more than the entire 

 cost of the box and glass. 



Judge Moyer : How early do you get your melons ? 



Mr. Smith : The earliest I raised were ready for market 

 about the 21st or 22d of July, and I have them all through the 

 month of August. 



Mr. Sampson : I have tried that style of box with a similar 

 glass, and it did not prove effectual with me; it was too close. 

 The sun would overheat it, or else it would be too cold. I could 

 not warm the ground underneath sufficiently. 



Mrs. Jennie Stager: I have tried something of the same 

 kind, and I could never have raised any melons in any other 

 way, because, if I planted them out in the open ground, they 

 were either frozen, or they ripened too late. 



