MUSKET 



4034 



MUSKMELON 



The state of New York has been propagating 

 the species known as Chautauqua muskcllunge 

 for many .'!i notablt It reaches 



a length of five feet, and is also called salmon 

 pike or white pickerel; its white and delicate 

 flesh is highly esteemed by good judges of food 

 See PIKE. 



MUS'KET, the name of the weapon with 

 which soldiers were armed previous to the in- 

 troduction of the modern rifle. The musket 

 used by the British army at the time of the 

 Battle of Waterloo (1815) was affectionately 

 referred to as "Brown Bess." While this was a 

 great improvement over previous weapons, one 

 man armed with a modern Springfield rifle 

 would easily be a match for twenty with the 

 musket of those days. The first muskets used 

 in the sixteenth century were cumbersome 

 weapons fired by a lighted torch or fuse, and 

 too heavy to handle without a support. 



Next came a musket fired by a wheel which, 

 by friction, produced sparks from a piece of 

 flint. This led to the old flintlock musket, 

 which sometimes exploded, sometimes did not, 

 by a spark from a piece of flint striking against 

 a steel pan in which was placed a small quan- 

 tity of powder. The introduction of central fire 

 cartridges finally sounded the doom of the 

 musket, which gave place to the rifle (which 

 see). In addition, see SMALL ARMS. 



MUSKHOGEAN, muskoge'an, the name of 

 the chief tribe of North American Indians of 

 the Creek confederacy, which includes the 

 Creeks, Choctaws, Chickasaws, Seminoles and 

 others. Formerly, they ranged all over the 

 state of Mississippi, western Tennessee, eastern 

 Kentucky, Alabama and Georgia, and later wan- 

 dered through Florida. When the Spaniards 

 landed on the Gulf coast in 1527 they found the 

 Muskhogean living in fortressed villages, en- 

 gaged in agriculture. They were much more 

 intelligent and progressive than any other East- 

 ern tribe of Indians. They had an elaborate 

 social organization, each tribe living in a sepa- 

 rate village. The remnants of the tribe now 

 live on a reservation in Oklahoma. See IN- 

 DIANS, AMERICAN. 



MUSK 'MELON, the sweet, luscious fruit of 

 a vine belonging to the gourd family; the 

 musk part of the name refers to its delicious, 

 aromatic flavor. There are several more or less 

 distinct botanical varieties, classified according 

 to the shape, size and character of the fruits. 

 They vary in size from a few inches to over a 

 foot in diameter; some are oblong and others 

 are nearly spherical in shape. The rind in these 



varieties shows dilYerem-es in appearance and in 

 degree of hardness, and the flesh is of various 

 colors, including white, rod, green, yellow and 

 intermediate .-hades. 



Muskmelons (>omet lines incorrectly called 

 mushmelons) are cultivated in warm climates 

 all over the world. The greater portion of 

 those raised for the American and Canadian 

 markets are divided into two groups canto.' 

 and Hittnu'd melons. Strictly speaking. 



AN "OSAGE" MELON 



a cantaloupe is a muskmelon with a hard, scaly 

 rind, which is often deeply furrowed. The 

 name comes from that of a town near Rome 

 (Cantalupo), whither the plant was first 

 brought from its native home in Armenia. 

 Nutmeg melons have softer, more or less net- 

 ted rinds, and they ripen sooner than canta- 

 loupes. However, the public does not readily 

 distinguish between these varieties, and the 

 name cantaloupe is applied without discrimina- 

 tion to beth varieties. 



These fruits require a warm soil and one in 

 which their growth will be rapid. Six to ten 

 seeds are planted, early in the spring, in hills 

 four to six feet apart. If the soil is poor, ma- 

 nure fertilizer is used in each hill to hasten 

 growth. In the north it is customary for com- 

 mercial growers to start the plants in hothouses 

 and to transfer them to the open field when 

 warm weather arrives. Care should be taken 

 to plant muskmelons some distance from 

 squash, for the bees and winds sometimes spoil 

 the flavor by mixing the pollen from the flow- 

 ers of the different plants. The special enemies 

 of the fruit are the striped beetle and the flea 

 beetle, for they eat the leaves of the vine. 

 These troublesome insects may be kept under 

 control by spraying the leaves with Paris green 

 or dusting them with tobacco dust or air-slaked 

 lime. Applications of Bordeaux mixture will 

 keep in check downy mildew and leaf-spot dis- 

 eases, by which the plant is liable to be at- 

 tacked. 



