VEGETABLE CROPS. 



7 1 3 



The melons are usually marketed in open trucks, without either bags or 

 crates. Large numbers of melons are grown on the banks of North (Joast 

 rivers, and these also are marketed without any packing, the growers simply 

 havin«r taken the precaution of scratching a brand on the rind. 



Cuban Queen Water-melon. 



As remarked above, water-melons should be grown with the object of 

 having them ready as early as possible, and one of the systems of raising 

 plants which are described above will be found of value to that end. 



Rock Melon Culture. 



In the hope that they may be of assistance to other growers, some sugges- 

 tions for the cultivation of rock melons, which were made by a member of 

 the Lower Portland branch of the Agricultural Bureau, are reproduced :— 



Unlike water melons, rock melons like a good stiff loam — not the stiffest 

 of soil, but land that responds well to cultivation. The land should be 

 ploughed early, say about June, and left open till nearly spring, when it 

 should be harrowed and ploughed, &c. : it will then be in good order. On no 

 account should the soil be worked while it is wet. for it will then go hard, 

 and out of condition, and in that state will nor produce good crops. 



