280 CALIFORNIA VEGETABLES. 



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 naturally rich loams, not only is the 

 culture devoid of all forcing devices, but on moist river 

 bank or bottom soils the early crop is sometimes grown 

 without irrigation. For summer planting and the con- 

 tinuation 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 sum- 

 mer product is most easily grown in the coast valleys, 

 somewhat protected from ocean winds. 



Field Culture. There are so many ways of handling the 

 soil to secure fine tillage and aeration and adequate mois- 

 ture without the evil of surface flooding that it can be 

 hardly claimed that any one routine is best. As involv- 

 ing tillage, irrigation by percolation and fertilization, 

 which the plant enjoys under proper conditions, the fol- 

 lowing outline, condensed from the writings of Dr. R. H. 

 Forbes, of the Arizona Station, is very suggestive for Cali- 

 fornia interior valley conditions. The writer has made 

 some additions from his own observations: Cantaloups 

 are grown to excellent advantage on light warm loams 

 properly fertilized by the addition of the organic matter 

 and nitrogen in which our desert soils are usually defici- 

 ent. Heavy soils may also be used for cantaloup culture, 

 but are less easily prepared and tilled during the progress 

 of the crop. Old alfalfa ground is most excellent for can- 

 taloup culture, and well rotted barnyard manure is effec- 

 tive. Bermuda sod plowed up and exposed to the sun 

 without irrigation the preceding summer makes excellent 

 cantaloup ground, the intensive cultivation necessary serv- 

 ing both to benefit the crop and to restrain this formidable 

 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 com- 



