458 GARDEN FARMING 



increases its supply of nitrogen. The watermelon, like all other 

 cucurbitaceous plants, is a gross feeder and requires an abundance 

 of available plant food. To meet this requirement it is well to use 

 manure or a commercial fertilizer in the hill. For this purpose 

 there is no better material than hog manure, but as a rule this is 

 not available in sufficient quantities for extensive operations, and 

 any well-decomposed manure may be substituted. When stable ma- 

 nure is scarce, a substitute can be made by composting 1000 pounds 

 of cottonseed, 1000 pounds of high-grade acid phosphate, 1000 

 pounds of fresh stable manure, and 300 pounds of kainite. These 

 materials should be thoroughly mixed and thrown into a heap to 

 ferment for at least six weeks before needed in the field. The com- 

 posting destroys weed seeds and renders the plant food in the 

 mixture more available. Such a compost can be safely used at the 

 rate of 5 pounds to the hill or 2 tons to the acre in drills. Place 

 the hills from 8 to 1 2 feet apart each way in check rows, and make 

 an excavation sufficiently deep to hold a good shovelful of the 

 manure. Over this place a layer of 3 or 4 inches of soil. If the 

 hills are slightly raised, so much the better in localities where there 

 is danger of excessive moisture ; but in regions where there is lack 

 of precipitation, it is better to maintain the surface of the hill upon 

 a level with the surrounding soil. A complete fertilizer carrying 

 3 per cent of nitrogen, 8 per cent of potash in the form of muriate 

 or sulphate of potash, and 8 per cent of phosphoric acid, mixed 

 with the soil at the rate of about a half pound to each hill, makes 

 a very good substitute for the stable manure if the humus content 

 of the soil is kept up by the use of green manures. Such a fertilizer 

 is approached in the following combination : 



Nitrate of soda, 500 lb.; nitrogen, 3.3 per cent. 



High-grade superphosphate, 1 200 lb. ; phosphoric acid, 8.4 per cent. 



Sulphate of potash, 300 lb. ; potash, 7.5 per cent. 



This may be used at the rate of 400 or 500 pounds per acre, in 

 the drill opened preparatory to plowing in the bed for planting. 



In most localities where watermelons are grown on an extensive 

 scale they are not planted in hills in check rows. A furrow is opened 

 along the line of the row, and the compost manure or fertilizer is 

 scattered in the furrow at the rate of from 400 to 500 pounds 



