MUSHROOM 



MUSKMELON 



1049 



the price, according to demand and supply. The best 

 season for the consumption of Mushrooms is the late 

 fall and winter months, as they keep in the cool, dry 

 weather for several days, and small dealers have no 

 trouble with them spoiling on their hands. The price 

 during these, months varies according to supply and 

 demand. In the summer months a few will do well, but 

 they spoil so readily in the heat that dealers do not care 

 to handle any stock; therefore, if there were a large 

 supply from June until October they would surely go 

 to waste. The growers generally take advantage of this 

 and renew their beds in summer, and prepare for the 

 coming season. One great mistake is that the small 

 grower is "too anxious to reach the consumer. He wants 

 to save the little which the middleman or distributer gets, 

 and he gives them to the retailer, to restaurants, or to 

 others, and these persons often take advantage of him. 

 He is sometimes compelled to take from 25 to 50 per 

 cent less than market price, and he injures the market 

 as well. All classes now buy Mushrooms. If the sup- 

 ply is scarce and price high, they go only to the better 

 class of hotels and restaurants; but as the price gradu- 

 ally decreases the consumption increases and the poorer 

 grade of hotels and restaurants and families consume 

 them. The consumption of canned and dried Mush- 

 rooms is not increasing as rapidly as that of the fresh- 

 grown, and we are led to believe that in the near future 

 our home-grown Mushrooms will be canned and dried as 

 the foreign are; in fact, some of the canners are now 

 making ketchup of the seconds and poorer grades. We 

 believe that the consumption can be doubled and pos- 

 sibly trebled at a good profit if sold at half the present 

 prices. We expect to hear before long of some house 

 that will make a specialty of Mushrooms and sell noth- 

 ing else. ARCHDEACON & Co. 



MUSK. The common Musk Plant of the gardens is 

 Mimnlus moschatus, an American plant. The wild 

 Musk Plant of Europe, however, isJtfrodium moschatum. 



MUSK HYACINTH, or 



Grape Hyacinth = Muscari 

 moschatuiti. 



MUSK M ALLOW = Hib is - 

 cus moscliattts. The Musk 

 seed of commerce is also Hi- 

 biscus moscJiatus. Marsh M. 

 is Althcea officinalis. 



MUSKMELONS( Plate XIX) 

 are now a very important com- 

 mercial product in North 

 America, and the cultivation 

 and use of them are increas- 

 ing rapidly. The hot, bright 

 climate suits them well. Musk- 

 meloiis thrive best in a light 

 and quick warm soil. Since 

 they are very susceptible to 

 frost and are a long-season 

 plant, it is important that they 

 secure a foothold very quickly 

 when put in the field; and this 

 they are not able to do on lands 

 which are not well prepared 

 or which are naturally hard 

 and clayey. If Muskmelons 

 must be grown on such land 

 it is advisable to make the 



hills. This is done by digging out a half -bushel or bushel 

 of earth and replacing it \vithwell-mixed loam and short 

 manure. The plants are then able to secure a quick 

 hold on the soil and to become thoroughly established 

 before the dry weather of July and August. 



In the southern states, the seeds of melons are usually 

 planted in the field where the crop is to mature. In the 

 northern states, however, the plants are started in 

 forcing-houses or hotbeds. As a rule, hotbeds are more 

 satisfactory than forcing-houses, since the plants can be 

 hardened off better. In forcing-houses, the plants are 

 likely to be too hot, even though there is no pipe heat, 

 and they tend to become very soft. Plants which are 



tender, soft and light green when put in the field will 

 nearly always suffer, even though the weather is not 

 cold thereafter. In hotbeds the plants are nearer the 

 glass, and the sash may be stripped entirely on all fair 

 days, thereby allowing the plants to become gradually 

 inured to field conditions. Melons transplant with diffi- 

 culty ; therefore they are always grown on pieces of in- 

 verted sods or in some temporary receptacle. Some 

 growers employ pint and quart berry-baskets, such as 

 are used for raspberries and strawberries. Others use 

 a basket-splint which is about 3% in. wide and 14 in. 

 long, and which is cut in a basket machine at such dis- 

 tances that when the splint is bent it will make a four- 

 cornered receptacle like a berry-box without top or 

 bottom. The ends of this splint are held together by a 

 single small tack. These forms may be packed together 

 lightly in the hotbed and filled with earth and two or 

 three seeds planted in each. When the plants have 

 acquired two or three rough leaves, they are ready to be 

 placed in the field. The forms can be taken from the 

 hotbed by running a spade or shingle underneath them. 

 With the fingers, the box is pulled apart and the cubical 

 mass of earth is dropped into the hole made for it, and 

 the plant receives no check. There is so much loss 

 from the depredations of the striped beetle and the flea- 

 beetle that one must provide several times more plants 

 than the area requires. The hills of melons are usually 

 from 4 to 6 ft. apart either way, and two or three plants 

 are sufficient for a hill; it is advisable, however, to 

 place at least half a dozen plants in each hill if the in- 

 sects are troublesome. It is an excellent plan to plant 

 squashes in the field before the melons are transplanted 

 and to gather the insects from them for a week or two. 

 Spraying the plants with Bordeaux mixture will repel 

 the insects to some extent. Dusting with tobacco dust 

 or snuff will also prove more or less efficient. Land 

 plaster in which there is a little kerosene or turpentine 

 is also repellent. The insects are killed by Paris green, 

 but because of the hairy nature of the melon leaf it is 



1447. A nutmeg Melon the St. Laud. 



almost impossible to cover the foliage completely with 

 the poison. 



There are two general types of commercial Musk- 

 melons in North America- the furrowed and hard-rinded 

 kinds, which are known as cantaloupes, and the netted 

 and softer-rinded types, known as nutmeg or netted 

 melons (Fig. 1447). In the southern states the word 

 cantaloupe is used generically for all melons, but this 

 use of the term is erroneous (see Cucumis, page 408, 

 Bailey, A. G. 14: 206; Waugh, G. F. 8: 183). The vari- 

 ous strains of netted melons are the ones mostly grown 

 in the North for the home garden and for early market. 

 The cantaloupes are mostly longer-season varieties. 



