208 CALIFORNIA VEGETABLES 



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. Growing groups of seedlings 

 in small receptacles for planting out in hills without disturbing the 

 roots, as described in Chapter XI, is a good way to get an early 

 start. 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 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 the coast valleys, somewhat 

 protected from ocean winds. 



FIELD CULTURE OF CANTALOUPS. 



There are so many ways of handling the soil to secure fine 

 tillage and aeration and adequate moisture without the evil of sur- 

 face flooding that it can be hardly claimed that any one routine is 

 best. As involving tillage, irrigation by percolation and fertiliza- 

 tion, which the plant enjoys under proper conditions, 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 : Cantaloups are grown to excellent advantage on light 

 warm loams properly fertilized by the addition of the organic mat- 

 ter and nitrogen in which our desert soils are usually deficient. 

 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 cantaloup culture, and well- 

 rotted barnyard manure is effective. 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 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- 

 complish this, and also to fertilize the soil, is as follows : The field 

 is first irrigated, plowed and harrowed to a condition of fine tilth. 

 With a 12-inch plow, at intervals of six feet, double furrows are 

 then broken out, going and returning along the same lines. In the 

 deep, wide furrows thus formed well-rotted barnyard manure is 

 distributed to a depth of three or four inches, then plowed in and 

 the field again harrowed level. By then plowing toward the mid- 

 dle of the spaces between the fertilized furrows, the soil is finally 



