8 QUERIES AXD ANSWERS. 



One vine alone to the hill should be allowed to attain perfection ; with 

 four hundred and fifty hills to the acre, there should be nine hundred first- 

 class melons. 



Philadelphia commission merchants pay for prime melons, as a highest 

 price, forty dollars ($40.00) per hundred. As an average price, ten dol- 

 lars ($10.00) per hundred. They cease to be profitable to the trucker 

 when bringing less than four dollars ($4.00) per hundred. First-class 

 melons are always in demand, but the market is frequently overstocked 

 with small fruit. 



Much of the melon seed offered throughout the country is the product 

 of immature and deformed melons remaining in the field after all the 

 choice fruit has been selected. 



Watermelon. 37. Q. What constitutes a good watermelon ? 



A. If for shipping to market the requirements seem to be to obtain from 

 the acre the greatest number of mammoth melons of good carrying quality, 

 little regard being paid to texture of flesh, depth of color, or flavor, so that 

 the flesh is solid and red. A familiar example of a favorite shipping 

 watermelon of only third-class quality is the Kolb Gem. 



If for private or family use, the mammoth melons are not desirable, the 

 requirements then being for those of fair weight, twenty to thirty pounds, 

 flesh solid from centre to rind, the unedible portion being not more than 

 one-half inch thick ; color of flesh red, flavor sugary and texture so granu- 

 lated or crystalline as to melt away like ice upon the tongue. A melon 

 producing fruit of fibrous sponge-like nature, no matter what its other 

 qualities maybe, cannot be a first-class melon. 



The Long Light Icing, the Round Icing, Arkansas Traveler and the Boss 

 are decidedly the best for the private garden. 



Arkansas The Arkansas Traveler and the Boss, both because of good size, of a dark 



and healthy deep green rind, of good carrying quality, having a rind like wood. 



The Boss while inside no others are so solid, so entirely edible, so deeply red, so 

 * crystalline in flesh, and altogether so excellent in quality, are recognized 

 as the best of all melons when grown on soils strong enough to properly 

 develop their variety. 



Points of a 38. Q. What constitutes a good citron melon or cantaloupe ? 



good Citron A. A good citron must in the first place produce a hardy vine without 



aielon. which healthy fruit cannot be expected. The fruit in size may be small 



like the Jenny Lind, medium like the Acme, or mammoth like the Reedland 

 Giant, Black Paris, or White French, but whatever its color, orange, sal- 

 mon, or green, it should be thick fleshed, juicy, sweet, melting and leaving 

 an agreeable flavor upon the palate. Some melons, apparently of good 

 flavor at first, prove after eating to be distasteful. For market purposes no 

 citron surpasses the Annie Arundel for productiveness, for good outside 

 appearances, and for edible qualities. 



Foreign 39. Q. Can seeds of foreign citrons be distinguished from seeds of Ameri- 



Cantalonpes. can-grown citrons ? 



A. Yes the seeds of foreign sorts are inclined to turn up at one end, 

 like a sled, are generally larger and nearly always more yellow. 



