WATERMELONS 237 



surplus water so that the spring plowing may not be delayed by 

 wetness. Two spring plowings and pulverizations are desirable 

 on the heavier soils. 



The land is laid off with, a marker in six or eight feet squares, 

 and planted, after danger from frost is over and the ground is warm, 

 with ten or twelve seeds in a place to cover accidents and insects. 

 These are reduced at the first hoeing to one or two plants in a place. 

 The cultivator should be used as soon as possible to prevent crusting 

 of the soil, and cultivation should be kept up until it interferes too 

 much with the growth of the vines. During the first two months 

 of their growth the cultivator is almost constantly running in the 

 melon fields. 



Time of planting is, of course, dependent upon the frost record 

 of the locality. To get the earliest melons, growers often take the 

 chance of replanting by planting in Maarch if it is an early spring 

 and the soil is in good condition. In light interior soils the most 

 of the planting is done in April, and in frosty situations early in 

 May. For succession, planting can proceed on moist or irrigated 

 land until July, and in frostless locations July planting will give 

 ripe melons as late as New Year's. 



Harvesting. When early sowings succeed, melons can be had 

 in June in the interior, but the weight of the crop comes in July or 

 August. An average yield in field culture is one car-load, or one 

 hundred dozen melons to the acre. Sizes run from a common mer- 

 chantable size of twenty pounds up to a monster of one hundred and 

 thirty-one and three-quarter pounds, grown in Los Angeles county, 

 as recorded in Chapter I. Melons of ninety to one hundred pounds 

 have been reported from all regions which make any pretensions to 

 greatness in this line. 



Stock Melons. Excess crop or defective watermelons and 

 cantaloupes are freely used for stock feeding. There is also especially 

 grown for stock, the pie-melon or citron melon, which is sometimes 

 called "citron." This term, however, should never be used without 

 the suffix melon, in this state, because the citron is an ancient and 

 honorable citrus fruit which we are growing on trees. The pie melon 

 or citron melon was so called because in cold countries they make a 

 preserve of the rind which has a fancied resemblance to the citron 

 of commerce which is made from the skin of the citron. 



Citron melons are of low nutritive value but serve a good pur- 

 pose. In one hundred pounds of citron melon there is 0.7 pounds of 



