GARDENING AND TRUCK FARMING. 305 



will not flood them, then with the finger or a stick draw a 

 mark through the center of the hill each way, dividing it into 

 four equal parts. Plant the southwest quarter of the hill as 

 soon as the land is warm, which will be often in this latitude 

 the last week in April or the first in May. Three or four days 

 later plant the southeast quarter, and follow round till you 

 have made four plantings. About one dollar's worth of seed 

 and a day's work to the acre will be the cost of these three 

 extra plantings and you will be almost certain to save one of 

 them. If your soil is heavy, I advise that a large shovel full 

 of sand be put on the top of each hill before planting. 



As soon as the plants begin to come up visit the patch every 

 day and carefully inspect it, and when a hill is fairly above 

 ground, apply a handful of bran to it; dust it thickly over the 

 top of the plants and heap it around the stem till it touches the 

 leaves. It will often save them from the bugs, and besides is a 

 good fertilizer. Rev. L. L. Langstroth, who is a careful experi- 

 menter in every thing that regards insect life, recommends 

 that gritty turnpike dust be used. It should be sifted and then 

 applied liberally when the dew is on, and should be applied to 

 the stems and under side of the leaf as well as the top. These 

 applications should be made as soon as the plants are fairly 

 above ground, whether any bugs are to be seen or not, for pre- 

 vention is much better than cure. After the bugs once get on 

 a hill of melons, it seldom thrives, for if they do not kill it they 

 poison it and leave it unthrifty. 



Any thing that you can do to hurry the growth and increase 

 the thrift of the plant will be a help and shorten the time of 

 danger, for as soon as fairly in the rough leaf the plants are 

 safe. A handful of fine, rich manure near the surface will 

 hurry the plants, but if superphosphate or chicken manure is 

 used, it must not come in contact with the seed, or it may 

 destroy it. Cow manure pulverized so that it can be sifted is 

 excellent for this purpose. It will pay for the first ten days 

 after the melons come up to work them every other day, and 

 the best implement I have ever seen for this purpose is the 

 Excelsior Hand Weeder. With it you can loosen the soil be- 



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