OCTOBER 15, 191c 



737 



High-pressure Gardening 



'• HIGH-PRESSURE "' CANTALOUP HELONS, ETC. 



On former pages I have told you about 

 pushing the dasheen with old well-rotted 

 stable manure and irrigation. 1 think I 

 mentioned, also, giving my cantaloup mel- 

 ons some of the old well-rotted manure. 

 Let me go a little more into detail. Some 

 time in April I got a. five-cent package of 

 cantaloup melon seed. 1 think they were 

 Burpee's seed. I asked for the Rocky Ford 

 strain of cantalou]) ; but the dealer here in 

 Medina was sold out, and gave me some- 

 thing' that came from Burpee's that he 

 thought " just as good." I have told you 

 what bad weather for general garden stuff 

 we had in April and May. Only a few of 

 my melon seeds came up, and what did 

 come up were such miserable-looking- spin- 

 dling things that I had very little hope they 

 would ever amount to any thing. I covered 

 them up with newspapers, however, during 

 frosty nights, and about the time I got that 

 rich old manure for the dasheens I gave 

 some also to my melons. Now, this is the 

 way I did it : I dug the soil away from each 

 melon-plant. I pulled it back in a circle 

 clear around the hill, and went down deep 

 enough to uncover the white tiny rootlets. 

 Then I filled in this cavity witli perhaps a 

 quart or two of this old heavy rich stable 

 manure, mixing it in with the dirt. 1 final- 

 ly soaked the manure and soil with water; 

 then with my hoe I pulled some soft fine 

 soil all up around the plants, covering the 

 wet part so the sun could not make the clay 

 soil bake. Some fine weather coming on 

 soon, the melon-plants just woke up and as- 

 tonished me. I visited them every night 

 and morning, to notice the change — kept 

 the dirt stirred around- them, all the weeds 

 out, and in a little while they were sending 

 out runners. Under the stimulus of this 

 rich manure they made an astonishing 

 gi'owth, and pretty soon melons were set in 

 great profusion. I think I watered tbeni 

 only once after putting the manure around 

 tile roots. During the last of August we 

 began to get ripe melons; and not only in 

 our own home but from all around Root- 

 ville came expressions of "happy surprise." 

 The melons in the market which had been 

 shipped in from away off somewhere could 

 not be compared with them. And right in 

 here comes anotlier of my " wonderful dis- 

 coveries " in regard to God's gifts. The 

 m.elons were so luscious, and there were so 

 many of them, I began to use them for my 

 evening meal instead of apples. This is the 

 way I did it : Let the melon get good and 

 ripe, so you can eat it with a spoon. Cut 



it in halves, and scoop out the seeds; then 

 have your five-o'clock supper ot cantaloup 

 melon and nothing else. If the melon is 

 real ripe you can scoop it out with a spoon 

 until nothing is left but a thin rind. Ac- 

 cording (o my notion you would need a lit- 

 tle bit of cheese to go with your melon to 

 make a " balanced i-ation." 



Now, when you get hold of some melons 

 fresh from the garden, as good as ours, if 

 you do not agree with me that it is the most 

 delicious meal you ever ate I shall be sur- 

 prised ; and the best part of it all is, that it 

 causes no disturbance whatever to the di- 

 gestive apparatus; whereas if 1 should eat 

 a regular stjuare meal as people generally 

 do for the last meal of the day, I should be 

 distressed all night, and have nightmare, 

 etc. Just one word more : 



If you liave only a little backyard gar- 

 den, by following the above program you 

 can have beautiful nice melons that, on a 

 rorgh estimate, would not cost you over a 

 cent ai^iece; and in quality as well as cost 

 tliey are away ahead of any thing j^ou can 

 find in the market — at least that, has been 

 my experience. Still another word: 



Some Hubbard squashes, about a dozen 

 hills, near the cantaloups, that had the same 

 treatment, have run all over the garden, and 

 there are fifteen or twenty most beautiful 

 squashes, some of them about the largest 

 I ever saw; and a whcelbarrowload of that 

 old rich black manure did it all. If you 

 want to reduce ll:e " high cost of living," 

 have a garden, even if it is only a little bit 

 of one, and manage it according to the di- 

 rections a1)ove given. 



"practical POTATO CULTURE;" ALSO SOME- 

 THING ABOUT HEADING OFF THE BUGS. 



I hold in my hand an excellent little book 

 of 126 pages, by E. A. Rogers, of Bruns- 

 wick, Maine. The book is chock full of 

 excellent suggestions in regard to growing- 

 pot atofs, not only in Maine but almost any- 

 where else. It also contains some beautiful 

 pictures — a good lot of them — and it is well 

 worth the price of any potato-grower or to 

 anybody who is interested in the matter of 

 better potatoes and more of them. Now. 

 with all the good things in this book there 

 is something- else about it that troubles me 

 a little. The following- letter to our Experi- 

 ment Station explains itself: 



Ohio Exiseriment Station, Wooster, Ohio. 

 Director Thorx, 



What troubles me just now is that in a book en- 

 titled " Practical Potato Culture," in speaking of 

 the use of Paris green, arsenite of lead, and other 

 arsenical poisons, the statement is made very vehe- 



