MELONS FOR MARKET. 



ocATiON AND SoiL — While mel- 

 ons can be grown on almost 

 yn any kind of soil, they cannot be 

 grown successfully as a field 

 crop unless the soil and location are 

 favorable. Light, porous, sandy loam 

 is the best and it must be full of humus, 

 or decaying vegetable matter in some 

 form, to secure the best results. Do 

 not be afraid of the soil being too dry 

 or too light, but in such cases use extra 

 care to provide an abundant supply of 

 humus in the soil, which is most easily 

 supplied by plowing under a good clover 

 sod ; or the field can be sown with rye 

 in September and the whole plowed 

 under in the spring. The melon is a 

 lover of drouth, and while it attains a 

 large size in a moist season or situation 

 it will not be of as good a quality. I 

 always raised a big crop and the best 

 melons when [the season was hot and 

 dry. The field should be high enough 

 to secure good drainage, and if level is 

 the most easily cultivated and least liable 

 to washing by heavy rains. 



Melons can be successfully grown on 

 slopes, as this not only insures a good 

 drainage in a wet season, but the crop 

 grown on a southern slope is materially 

 assisted in early ripening thereby. If 

 the land is rather wet on level soil, it 

 can be made better for melon culture 

 by back- furrowing a strip of land two or 

 three rods across. This will make the 

 land slope gradually to both sides. If 

 the soil is too heavy, melons can be 

 grown successfully, for a small patch, by 

 mixing sand in the soil in the hill, or by 

 covering the surface of the hill before 

 planting with about three inches of sand. 

 Freshly broken woodland is very good 

 for raising melons, as such soil is usually 

 very light and full of leaf mold. I have 

 also had great success in growing mel- 



ons on land used for hog pasture, as the 

 hogs had worked the ground well over, 

 which made the soil loose and friable, 

 and it was well enriched by their drop- 

 pings. 



Manuring. — When stable manure is 

 used broadcast before it is well rotted it 

 should be plowed under in the fall or 

 early spring for best results, so that it 

 may become well composted with the 

 soil. I manure mostly in the hill, for a 

 limited amount of manure will go farth- 

 er that way and also give good results. 

 Well rotted manure should be used for 

 enriching the hills, as this tends to 

 give the vines a strong, quick growth 

 from the start, and it aids them in 

 resisting the attacks of insects and rip- 

 ening the crop early in the season. For 

 very light, sandy soil I would advise 

 using some rich manure, as of cattle, 

 hog or poultry, for making the compost 

 for the hills. As stated before, a good 

 clover sod, plowed under, makes one of 

 the best manures for the melon crop. 



Preparing for Planting. — The ground 

 should be thoroughly prepared. Where 

 plowed in the fall, it should be plowed 

 again in the spring and worked fine with 

 the harrow and roller. If not fall-plow- 

 ed it should be worked with a disc or 

 common harrow until the surface is well 

 pulverized for three or four inches. 

 This is most important where coarse 

 manure has been spread broadcast in 

 the spring, for it will then be well mixed 

 with the soil Then plow deep and 

 finish again with the harrow and roller. 

 Mark both ways, seven feet apart be- 

 tween the rows for watermelons and 

 three and a half by seven for musk- 

 melons. If hill manuring is necessary, 

 dig a hole eight inches deep and eigh- 

 teen inches across for each hill and put 

 in one or two shovelfuls of manure. 



487 



