232 CALIFORNIA VEGETABLES 



commercial crop is produced on deep, rich, warm loams, but heavier 

 soils with good culture may be used. Some varieties seem to enjoy 

 a heavy soil better than others. Preparation of the soil is the same 

 as for cucumbers, and the same methods for starting plants for 

 planting out as well as for furnishing warmth and richness in the 

 hill may be used in garden practice. In the interior, on the natur- 

 ally rich loams, not only is the culture devoid of all forcing devices, 

 but on moist soils the early crop is grown without irrigation. For 

 summer planting and the continuation of the muskmelon supply late 

 in the fall, ample moisture is necessary, and a modification of interior 

 heat by intrusion of coast breezes is desirable. The late summer 

 product is most easily grown in coast valleys, somewhat protected 

 from ocean winds. Even in rather cool places one can get good 

 cantaloupes for home use by choosing warm places in the garden and 

 by arrangements to corner the heat. 



Field Culture of Cantaloupes. There are so many ways of hand- 

 ling the soil to secure fine tillage and aeration and adequate moisture 

 without the evil of surface flooding that it can be hardly claimed 

 that any one routine is best. As involving tillage, irrigation by per- 

 colation and fertilization, which the plant enjoys under proper con- 

 ditions, the following outline, condensed from the writings of Dr. R. 

 H. Forbes of the Arizona Station, is very suggestive for California 

 interior valley conditions. The writer has made some additions 

 from his own observations : Cantaloupes are grown to excellent ad- 

 vantage on light warm loams properly fertilized by the addition of 

 the organic matter and nitrogen in which our desert soils are 

 usually deficient. Heavy soils may also be used for cantaloupe cul- 

 ture, but are less easily prepared and tilled during the progress of 

 the crop. Old alfalfa ground is most excellent for cantaloupe cul- 

 ture, and well-rotted barnyard manure is effective. Bermuda sod 

 plowed up and exposed to the sun without irrigation the preceding 

 summer makes excellent cantaloupe ground, the intensive cultivation 

 necessary serving both to benefit the crop and to restrain this for- 

 midable weed. Trash from sod-turning can be reduced by the use 

 of a disk. 



Alkaline lands should be avoided, since soluble salts in excess, 

 even though insufficient to kill the plants, are commonly believed to 

 be detrimental to the quality of the melons. 



The land should be so laid out that the rows may be irrigated 

 without submerging the vines and the fruit. One good way to ac- 



