1970 



WATERMELON 



WATERMELON 



on a large scale. The following formula will be found 



to be well adapted to the average soil: 



Ll.s. 



Nitrateof soda -"'i'" 



High grade superphosphate 1,200 



Sulfate of potash (or muriate of potash) 300 



2.000 

 This is rather a high grade formula and will analyze: 



Per cent 



Nitrogen (ammonia equivalent 4.0 per cent) :; :: 



Phosphoric acid (available) 8.4 



Potash (K2O) 7.5 



It may be used advantageously at the rate of from 

 400 to 800 lbs. per acre; the maximum amount, bow- 

 ever, will rarely be justified. An extra finish of nitrate 

 of soda— say a thimbleful per hill — applied just after 

 the plants are well up, will give them a good start. 



Planting is performed by hand and the seed put in 

 quite shallow. Seeds should not be spared. Field mice, 

 pigeons, poultry, crows, cockroaches and other depre- 

 dators frequently prevent a perfect stand where but 

 few seed are used, and the time lost thereby, when re- 

 planting is necessitated, can never be regained. Twenty 

 seeds to the hill is not too many— preferably rather 

 more than less — each seed pushed down separately into 

 the mellow soil with the forefinger to the depth of an 

 inch or less. They should on no account be placed 

 deeper. This forces the marauding agency — whatever 

 it may be — to discover and destroy each seed in succes- 

 sion, which gives some a chance to escape; whereas, if 

 planted together in a mass, so soon as the pocket was 

 found the seed would all be scattered or devoured at 

 once. The process of planting as described seems slow 

 and laborious, but it really takes much less time than 



2720. The Prese 



its details indicate. ,On dry soil, during a time of 

 drought, it is sometimes necessary to put a "hoe-dab" 

 of earth on each hill, after planting, to serve as a mulch 

 and to induce germination. This is removed before the 

 cotyledons of the young plants appear. 



In addition to starting uuder glass and transferring 

 to paper (Neponset) pots, in order to have the young 

 plants ready for permanent planting as soon as all dan- 

 ger of frost is over, the growth of the vine, after final 

 transplanting, may be forced by artificial means. A 

 section of small sewer-pipe or tiling is embedded per- 

 pendicularly in the hill and nightly draughts of water 

 (liquid manure, if desired, weak, with a solution of 

 phosphates) fed the plant. This stimulates rapid 

 growth in early spring and development of root sur- 

 face. When acid phosphate is used in solution, the 

 fruit is also said to increase rapidly in size, quantity 

 and quality. Careful thinning to one or two melons per 

 vine will also hasten their growth and development. 



"Christmas" melons — should any one care for as cold 

 cheer at that season — may be had by selecting a thick- 

 rinded variety, as Kolb Gem, planting late in June, 

 handling carefully when pulled, and storing in some 

 dry, yielding substance, like cottonseed hulls, in a cool 



cellar where the temperature is uniform and can never 

 drop below freezing. 



After the plants are up they are at first thinned down 

 to three or four to the hill, and subsequently to one, or 

 at most two. One vigorous root system, well attended 

 to. will usually succeed in extracting from the soil as 

 much plant-food as will two, and will give a better 

 account of it, also, on "settling day." 



Cultivation is commenced early and should cease 

 early. It is effected with either the five-tootbed or 

 eleven-toothed cultivator or with scooter and "heel- 

 scrape," and should invariably be shallow, except for 

 the first plowing after planting, when the middles are 

 customarily "run out" with a turn-plow or "twister." 

 "Laying by," or the cessation of cultivation, should 

 occur as soon as the vines cover the ground well. Vines 

 are never turned at any stage, if it can be avoided, and 

 under no circumstances after "laying by." Nor is the 

 land ever plowed in the early forenoon. To prevent the 

 wind from rolling and tumbling the vines, a thin broad- 

 casting of cow-peas is usually made at the last plowing. 

 They serve also, later, to partially shade the melons 

 and leave the soil in excellent condition for the next 

 crop. 



Marketing. — Large areas for shipment are always 

 located directly on some line of railroad — if possible, 

 with a spur or side-track into the plantation. The 

 heaviest servitude attached to melon culture is the 

 initial haul, which should invariably be on springs. A 

 mile's jolt in a springless vehicle discounts profits 

 more severely than a thousand-mile journey, subse- 

 quently, in a ventilator car— the mode of shipment now 

 almost exclusively employed where a water route is not 

 convenient. Profits also largely depend on two other 

 considerations: judicious and severe culling, and the 

 proper selection of a market. The first measure cannot 

 be practiced too severely. Undersized fruit is unsal- 

 able, and the car-load average is invariably gauged by 

 the smallest melons it contains, as the strength of a 

 chain is measured by its weakest link. Nothing under 

 sixteen pounds should ever leave the field, and it would 

 be better to limit the minimum weight to twenty pounds. 

 Anything over thirty pounds ranks as large, over forty 

 quite large, and melons reaching fifty pounds are of 

 the first rank, although it is not uncommon to meet with 

 monsters of sixty, seventy or even eighty pounds, 

 while occasionally a phenomenally big one tops the hun- 

 dred mark. It is believed that the largest melon on 

 record (officially) attained the weight of 124 pounds. 

 This was grown near Decatur, Ga., some twenty years 

 ago — outside the established "Melon Belt." 



In shipping, the smaller melons should occupy the 

 floor of the car, with the larger forming the upper tiers 

 — not for the purpose of deception or for the sake of 

 appearance, but because the smaller sizes better with- 

 stand jolting and pressure and there is also less loss if 

 they are injured. 



As the importance of avoiding glutted markets is 

 self-apparent, and the judicious selection of his point of 

 shipment means to the grower success or failure, it 

 follows that shipping associations are almost an absolute 

 necessity — the ordinary planter who depends on his in- 

 dividual judgment generally "going to the wall." The 

 "Shippers' Unions," however, are usually able to cope 

 successfully with the problem and manage to distribute 

 the season's crop over the country in such manner as to 

 leave a living profit to the planter. Yet the industry is 

 now by no means so remunerative as formerly. Supply 

 seems to more than equal demand, and great complaint 

 is made by the grower of excessive freight charges, 

 while the transportation lines insist that their rates at 

 present figures are not profitable. And yet the grower 

 still continues to plant his melons, the railroads to 

 haul, and the public to purchase them! 



Affections and Remedies.— After a stand is once ob- 

 tained— spontaneously and promptly — and this, when 

 all is said, is perhaps the main problem underlying suc- 

 cessful melon culture — its affections are comparatively 

 few and simple. Indeed, the Watermelon may be said 

 to be free from any vital disease, and its maladies are 

 almost entirely confined to those resulting from the at- 

 tacks of a few insect pests, as follows: 



1. The melon worm (Marunronia hyalhtata). — A. 



