VEGETABLES DESCRIPTION AND CULTURE. 



359 



Shipper's Delight. — An early, good-shipping variety ; 

 green flesh, thick and fine flavored. The distinguishing- 

 feature of this melon is the button on the blossom end. 



Culture. — The melon likes a rich, sandy soil, well ma- 

 nured and deeply dug. If the soil is clay, it should be 

 corrected by the addition of charcoal-dust, sand, or leaf- 

 mould from the woods. The most luscious melons are 



Fig. 129— Emerald Gem. 



grown on new land, fresh from the woods. They like, 

 also, soil manured by cow-penning. In selecting seed, get 

 the oldest to be had, and take great care to get that which 

 is perfectly pure, for the seed of melons raised in prox- 

 imity to gourds, cucumbers, pumpkins, etc., will produce 

 new varieties, destitute of flavor. All plants of this family 

 are exceedingly liable to intermix, to their great detri- 

 ment. They will deteriorate, if planted within one hun- 

 dred feet of each other. 



Plant in the open ground when the frosts are over, a 

 little later than the general corn crop is planted. In sec- 

 tions where the seasons are too short for it the melon is 

 planted in pots in a hot-bed, and the maturity of the crop 



