CHAPTER Iff 

 SOILS 



For Muskmelons. Most writers on muskmelons 

 advocate the selection of rather heavy, sandy loams 

 for the best success in commercial melon growing, 

 for the reason that the muskmelon seems to require 

 a soil which contains an abundance of vegetable 

 matter on which the plant can draw for its food 

 supply during the entire season, rather than during 

 a comparatively short space of time. While it is 

 true that the muskmelon can be grown successfully 

 on almost any good loamy soil, it is a fact that in 

 the melon regions of the middle West, as well as 

 in the South, the sandy soils are almost universally 

 selected for commercial purposes where it is possi- 

 ble to do so. 



Some of the most successful growers in the Ohio 

 and Mississippi valleys select a sandy soil that is 

 rich enough, or that can be made rich enough, to 

 produce a good stand of clover. Then, in order to 

 put it in the best possible condition for melons and 

 to keep it so, they arrange a three or four-year rota- 

 tion, starting with clover, then melons, then wheat, 

 and then back to clover for one or two years. By 

 this process a minimum amount of manure is re- 

 quired to keep up the fertility, as these crops fur- 

 nish a good supply of humus in the soil, and what 

 manure is used for the melons is usually applied in 

 the hills, although some broadcast it for musk- 

 melons, as the hills are much closer together than 

 in the case of watermelons. 



14 



