306 THE PEOPLE'S FARM AND STOCK CYCLOPEDIA. 



tween the plants and work in a little fine manure if desired 

 without disturbing them. If melons are 

 managed as here recommended you can 

 hardly fail to get a stand, as if one 

 planting is eaten up by the bugs you 

 EXCELSIOR HAND WEBBER, have others coming on to take their places. 

 The green-fleshed, netted varieties are the most prolific and 

 salable. Jenny Lind is the earliest, but is too small to be 

 profitable for market. Green nutmeg is the popular market 

 variety. Bay View and Cassaba, are large, green-fleshed varie- 

 ties, the former often growing to a length of sixteen or 

 eighteen inches. Early Yellow cantelope and Long Yellow are 

 yellow-fleshed. 



"Watermelons. The same general directions given above 

 will apply to the management of watermelons, but they 

 should be planted much wider apart, not less than eight by 

 ten feet, and as soon as the vines are four or five feet in 

 length they should be covered with earth about two feet from 

 the hill, so as to enable them to take root. Next to the 

 striped bug the evil most common with watermelons is prema- 

 ture dying of the vines, and if we can cause the vines to 

 strike root at some distance from the hill it will be a preventive 

 of this trouble. The best time to cover the vines is as soon 

 after a rain as the land will work nicely. With the corner of 

 the hoe make a furrow three inches deep alongside the vine, 

 and carefully lift it into it. Then fill the furrow with fresh 

 mellow earth, and with the foot press it firmly. If large 

 melons are wanted, but few specimens must be allowed to 

 grow on a hill, and the ends of the vines nipped a few joints 

 beyond the fruit. Another cause of vines dying prematurely 

 is that the manure used in the hill is not sufficiently mixed 

 with earth. 



The directions given for planting melons are often errone- 

 ous. The planter is told to dig a hole two feet in diameter and 

 twelve to eighteen inches deep and fill it with manure ; if this 

 is done the vines are almost certain to perish when the weather 

 becomes hot and dry. The same amount of manure spread ovor 



