228 



THE VINE CROPS 



is required close about the plants. Any crust forming after a rain 

 is broken, and fresh, moist soil drawn up about the plant. Grass 

 and weeds appearing in the hill are removed by hand. 



Most growers cease tillage and lay-by the crop as soon as the 

 vines have run enough to interfere with the cultivator. The 

 experience of a few growers, who have turned the vines and kept 

 them in windrows so the tillage could be continued until the 

 picking season opened, indicates that a departure from the old 

 method is likely to insure better development of the melons and 

 a longer picking season, though the first fruits may not ripen so 



early. There is another distinct 

 advantage in this turning of the 

 vines, in that the gathering of 

 the crop is greatly facilitated 

 and there is no injury to the 

 vines from tramping. 



Extremes of Moisture. — The 

 muskmelon suffers severely from 

 extremes in the moisture supply. 

 An excess of moisture can be 

 largely avoided by planting on 

 well-drained land, as already sug- 

 ^('sted; but if the rain falls in 

 lorrents, as it often does in the 

 melon regions, the soil is washed 

 along the hillsides, and many 

 vines and melons are partially 

 buried in mud. Sometimes entire 

 hills are destroyed, but usually 

 most of them can be saved by sys- 

 tematically digging them out. If a melon fruit is allowed to remain 

 partially buried, the part that is under ground does not develop 

 properly and will be of poor flavor. In fact, if melons are being 

 grown for a select trade and the season is wet, it may be necessary 

 to go over the field repeatedly and move each melon out of the 

 pocket of mud which has been made about it by the rain; for the 

 smaller the point of contact of the melon with the earth, the more 

 nearly will the lower side equal the upper in reference to flavor. 

 The old gardeners' practice of inserting a shingle or piece of slate 

 under each melon for the sake of improving its flavor is not with- 

 out foundation. 



Fig. 



135. — "Boat," a home-naade devi 

 used in the tillage of melon.s. 



