2 MELON CULTURE 



Melons have been grown in the United States 

 from its early history, but until comparatively recent 

 times their culture was confined to the eastern and 

 southeastern states along the southern coast. In 

 some of the writings of the early part of the last 

 century mention is made^ of a number of varieties 

 having been shown at the exhibition of the Massa- 

 chusetts Horticultural Society; and in 1851 the 

 same author speaks of the Christiana melon as hav- 

 ing been raised by Captain Josiah Lovett from a 

 green Malta melon impregnated with a very early 

 variety, and it was believed that it had not been 

 equaled. In order to show their appreciation of its 

 merits, the society awarded Captain Lovett a piece 

 of plate of the value of $50. A little later, melons 

 weighing from 40 to 50 pounds were exhibited, and 

 the quality was all that could be desired. Within 

 the last 50 years the cultivation and improvement 

 of the melon has steadily increased, and the number 

 of varieties which are suited to different soils and 

 climates has gradually grown, until the United 

 States is acknowledged to be the largest melon- 

 growing country in the world. 



Botany. — The muskmelon and the watermelon 

 both belong to the natural order Cucurbitacece, from 

 the Latin, Ciicurhita, meaning a gourd. This order^ 

 contains plants that are mostly tendril-bearing 

 herbs, with succulent but not fleshy herbage, watery 

 juice, alternate palmately ribbed and mostly lobed 

 or angled leaves, monoecious or sometimes dioe- 

 cious flowers ; monoecious, when flowers of both 

 sexes are borne upon the same plant but only one 



\ "History of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society.** 

 "Gray's "Botany." 



