CANTALOUPE CULTURE AND PEDIGREED CANTALOUPE SEED. 



all the fine records of early yields and high prices have been made on 

 soil that was in a perfect state of tilth and fertility. 



Soil can be made too rich in applying manures, and the principal 

 point in the application of fertilizers is to have a reasonable amount, and 

 well incorporated in the soil, and in the case of barnyard manure, to have 

 it well rotted. In Colorado, manuring in the hill, has been found to have 

 no advantage over the broadcast method, owing probably to the wide 

 spreading root system of the plant; commercial fertilizers have not been 

 profitably used in Colorado. 



PREPARING LAND FOR CANTALOUPES 



The secret of getting soil in that ashy, mellow condition so desirable 

 for cantaloupes, is one largely of experience, for handling soil in the 

 same manner on different farms will seldom get the same results; one 

 may be a clay, the other a sandy loam. The texture and the previous 

 cropping has much to do with the way soil can be handled. In general, 

 there must be moisture in the soil during the winter to secure the mellow- 

 ing effect of the frost, and the soil must not be handled too wet. If clay 

 or adobe "packs," it will dry hard and lumpy; real sandy soil can be 

 handled wet with less risks than other soils. The soil should be friable 

 so that the harrow will pulverize it without clogging as it does in mud, 

 and yet not so dry as to leave the field full of clods. 



Before plowing, the soil should be well disked for two reasons. 

 First, to thoroughly mix the soil with any fertilizer previously applied 

 and second, to pulverize the soil on the surface, so that after the work 

 of preparation is complete, the bottom of the furrow will be as finely 

 prepared as the top. Plowing for cantaloupes is usually made to the 

 depth of five or six inches; in the arid region the plowed land must be 

 closely harrowed behind the plow, to prevent too rapid drying of the 

 surface, and should be closed up by fineing the soil on top; this is usually 

 accomplished with the steel harrow with the teeth turned nearly flat, or 

 with a float or land leveler, a fine dust mulch will check evaporation, and 

 thus conserve the soil moisture, to enable a more thorough harrowing 

 to complete the preparation. Preparing the land some time before planting 

 is advisable as the soil becomes settled, and the seed will germinate more 

 readily and a more uniform stand will be secured. The soil should also 

 be harrowed after cold spring rains, to check evaporation, which will tend 

 to aid in warming up the soil. Before laying out the rows to plant, while 

 the surface of the soil is dry, the field should be carefully leveled with 

 a land leveler; See Plate No. 3; removing all the high points and filling 

 the hollows and deadfurrows, so that in irrigating the water will run 

 uniformly without flooding the rows, or over soaking any of the hills. 



About planting time, the field is laid off with a marker in rows five 

 to six feet apart, in the opposite direction to the rows to be planted, which 

 are laid off with the irrigation furrows, in the best direction for water 

 to run, the irrigation rows are usually made about the same distance 

 apart, usually six feet, these furrows can be made with a single shovel 

 plow or a two row marker or furrower, shown in Plate No. 4. In the 

 non-irrigated regions these furrows could serve for surface drainage after 

 heavy rains. 



