SOILS 17 



in a commercial way at least, on a cold, wet soil. In 

 the first place, the seeds would most likely rot be- 

 fore they could have time to germinate, and if some 

 of them did succeed in germinating, the plants 

 would make only a feeble growth, and the crop 

 would amount to nothing. To be sure, some fairly 

 good melons may be grown, on a small scale for 

 family use, on almost any good loamy soil, provid- 

 ing it is well drained and not too rich in nitroge- 

 nous material so as to produce a luxuriant growth 

 of vine at the expense of fruit ; but the farmer who 

 has only a heavy, clay soil or rich bottom land, had 

 better devote his energies toward raising wheat 

 and corn, and buy what watermelons the family 

 needs ; because, if he attempts to raise them under 

 such conditions, he will only meet with disappoint- 

 ment. But if he can find a patch of light sand on 

 the place, by using plenty of fertilizer, he can raise 

 the finest kind of melons. 



Nor is there much danger of the sand being too 

 light and porous. Some of the best watermelon 

 land that can be found anywhere may be found 

 in sections of the Ohio and Mississippi valleys 

 where the sand is so light and loose that farmers 

 are sometimes obliged to haul straw and place it in 

 the road in order to be able to haul their melons 

 to market ; and yet that soil retains the moisture 

 and plant food sufficient to produce heavy crops of 

 melons of the highest quality during the driest sea- 

 sons. (See Fig. 2.) Corn also forms a part of the 

 rotation on some of these lands, and from fifty to 

 seventy-five bushels per acre is often produced. 

 Much of this is due to the ability of these soils to retain 

 moisture and to furnish it to the plants as needed. 



