Cultivation. 



The importance of this subject is greatly underestimated. 

 The grower who hoes his melons primarily to kill the weeds 

 is a crude workman. The object should be to keep the soil 

 stirred for a mulch, to keep fresh soil up around the plants, 

 and to keep the soil fine to make its elements more available 

 as food for the plants. The hand hoeing is very important. 

 The dry, baked soil should first be drawn away from the 

 plants, preferably by hand, and fresh, fine dirt drawn up 

 around them with the hoe. The whole purpose of 'cultiva- 

 tion is, like fertilizing, to promote a continuous growth. 

 As has been said, all cultivation should be shallow after 

 growth is well started. 



Enemies. 



Cutworms, Bugs and Blight. 



Especially following turf or a cover crop, unless it is. 

 plowed in the fall, cutworms are generally abundant and 

 very destructive. In a small patch they may be dug out 

 in the morning; on a larger scale they may be poisoned by 

 a mixture of Paris green, molasses and bran, a teaspoonful 

 dropped near the hill in the afternoon. When planting, the 

 cutworms should be remembered and seed used rather abun- 

 dantly. 



The striped bugs trouble but a few days generally, but 

 that at a critical time, when the plants are tender and young 

 and must be protected. Land plaster or gypsum dusted 

 over the hills will drive them away, so will ashes or dust; or 

 a mixture may be made of these and a few drops of turpen- 

 tine added. A hill is occasionally found infested with lice. 

 This should be burned on sight, or else buried and the top 

 of the soil under the hill scraped off and covered also. Save 

 the ladybugs, as they feed on the lice. 



Blight is to the melon vine what cholera is to the hog, — 

 the one great enemy. It has, in its various forms, several 

 different scientific names, perhaps unimportant here. The 

 blight has practically driven melon growing out of New 

 England. The scientists have given their best endeavor to 

 the problem, and sometime they will solve it, if it can be 



