TRUCK FARMING. 625 



The soil best adapted to the -watermelon is light warm sand or very 

 sandy loam, and, if newly cleared or having not been planted for three 

 years, so much the better. Whatever tends to compact the soil, 

 whether rainy weather or a deficiency of vegetable matter, is detri- 

 mental to the crop. 



Melons are usually planted in hills, a couple of plants to each. The 

 land is laid off 10 or 12 feet apart each way, an opening made with the 

 hoe at each crossing, the manure incorporated with the soil, and a flat 

 hill a few inches above the general surface made over it for the recep- 

 tion of the seed. Instead of these distances I prefer G by 13 feet, leav- 

 ing a single plant in each, manuring, if i)ossible, in the drill. 



Fresh stable manure is objectionable. One or two shovelfuls of de- 

 cayed stable manure, cow or hog manure, and a couple of handfuls of cot- 

 ton-seed meal, or other fertilizer is generally applied. In the latitude of 

 Lowndes County, Georgia, March 1 is early enough for the first plant- 

 ing, but several plantings should be made to secure a stand, even before 

 the first appear above ground. Nothing is gained by putting in this 

 crop too early. If the soil be cold the seed will either rot or not come 

 up, or if it does, and if the plants are exposed to cold nights, tbey will 

 become stunted, never to recover vigor enough to prodnce fair3ields of 

 first quality melons. 



The soil between the rows should be kept stirred by the cultivator 

 and, as the length of the vine increases, furrows should betlirown to the 

 ridges, leaving, eventually, the plant on the middle of wide beds, with 

 intervening water-farrows. The vines should never be handled. Wa- 

 termelons come into market from Florida of rather poor quality about 

 the latter part of Ma^', from Southern Georgia about June 15, and 

 the sea islands near Savannah about July 1. 



An experienced j^icker can recognize at a glance, from its general 

 light and bright appearance, without touching it, whether a melon has 

 reached the proper stage of ripeness to be cut off the vine for shipment. 

 It has reached this stage when the interior first commences to turn red. 

 If fully ripe it will neither bear transportation nor otherwise be in 

 proper state on arrival in market. The less experienced picker must 

 resort to other signs of approaching ripeness, and those appearing on 

 the surface in contact with the soil are the most reliable. If the rind 

 here has hardened so as to be with a little difficulty penetrable by the 

 finger-nail, or when the pores are perceptible to the touch by a slight 

 roughness of the surface, or when the pores can be distinctly seen, the 

 melon maybe picked for shipment. The shriveling of the " curl" or 

 little tendril on the vine nearest to the fruit is a usual but not certain 

 sign of ripeness. A ripe melon sounds hollow on percussion with the 

 knuckle, but a large unripe one will emit the same resonance in the hot 

 midday sun. If the " belly"' (surface on which it lias lain) is yellow or 

 rough or blistered, it is too ripe for shipment. It were better fed to 

 hogs than be shipped at an expense for freight. Pressure upon the 

 fruit to hear the rupture of the flesh within is mere folly for any pur- 

 pose. If intended for shii^ment the fruit should never be ripe enough 

 to emit the sound, and if for immediate sale it is damaged in value by 

 the pressure and rupture. 



The melon plant and the fruit is subject to injury from the larvae of 

 Fhacellura /j?/aZmt^flWs, an insect similar to the Pickle- worm 5 but, if it 

 has two broods at the South the early one mast be very small in num- 

 ber, as I have never known the earl}' crop to be depredated upon, whil« 

 the insect is more common later in the season. 

 40 AG— '80 



