Vegetables with Edible Fruits 157 



A crop may be brought in early by using paper flower- 

 pots and potting soil as described for cucumbers, but the 

 pots should be a size larger than for cucumbers. 



When seeds are sown in the field, they may be sown in a 

 shorter time after fertilizing than when plants are set out. 

 Six to twelve seeds are dropped in a hill. Insects and 

 vermin will destroy so many that but few will have to be 

 thinned out. Thinning to one plant is claimed to give 

 larger melons. If cottonseed meal has been used as a 

 source of nitrogen and this is advisable a teaspoonful 

 of nitrate of soda may be scattered in the hill just after 

 the seedlings have appeared above the ground, or when 

 the plants are set out. This will stimulate the plants to 

 a rapid growth, and get them out of the way of insects. 



Cultivating. 



All cultivation of watermelons should be shallow, merely 

 to keep the surface mellow and free from weeds. As soon 

 as practicable after heavy rains, the field should be culti- 

 vated ; and when no rains occur, it should be cultivated 

 every week or ten days, depending upon the kind of land. 

 It is not necessary to till all the middles while the plants are 

 small, though weeds should not be allowed to go to seed ; 

 but if the weather is dry, the middles must be worked to 

 conserve the moisture in the soil, and all weeds kept down, 

 as each one of these is a leak to so much soil moisture. 

 The horse weeder will be very useful at this time. As 

 the plants grow larger, the cultivation has to be pushed 

 farther to the middles until finally the plants meet across 

 the rows, when tillage must be discontinued. If tall 

 weeds grow in the field after this, they should be cut off, 



