224: GARDENING FOR PRO- O\ 



never be expected to be very profitable if sold in the 

 district in which it is grown. It is a plant not at all 

 particular as to soil, provided it be not wet or heavy. 

 Moderately enriched, light soils, are those most congenial 

 to it. 



For open field culture, Melons should be planted in hills 

 six feet each way, incorporating well with the soil in 

 each hill a couple of shovelfuls of thoroughly rotted 

 manure. Sow four or five seeds in each hill,* and culti- 

 vate afterward as for Corn. 



A clover sod is especially favorable for Melons. The 

 main point is to push the crop forward as rapidly as pos- 

 sible, so as to catch the high prices which usually rale 

 for an early crop. One of the Melon growers of Hacken- 

 sack, New Jersey, admitted to me that he had lost the 

 whole of his late crop by withholding the expenditure of 

 $25 or $30 for guano on his field of twelve acres, which, 

 if used at the planting, would have pushed the crop for- 

 ward six. or eight days, and would thus have saved it 

 from an early fall frost. For this reason, a dressing of 

 guano or bone-meal, well mixed with the soil, should 

 always be used if we would attain the most profitable 

 results. It is a crop that can be as easily raised as a 

 crop of Corn, and when sold at wholesale, it is safe to 

 say, will always pay ar profit of at least $100 per acre. 

 The variety most preferred for this section is that known 

 as Hackensack, which is grown by the hundreds of acres 

 for the New York market. The most successful growers 

 greatly increase the yield of this crop by a system of 



* The term " hill," when used here and elsewhere, means but a slight 

 elevation of the surface, and is used only as a convenient term to denote 

 where the seed or plant is to be planted. But from the signification of 

 the word, it naturally leads the novice in gardening into very serious 

 error, by causing him to think he must literally raise a hill on which to 

 sow or plant, and in consequence we too frequently see plants elevated 

 on little knolls a foot or more above the general surface from which the 

 rain slides, and on which the sun beats to their utter destruction. 



