156 Siibtropical Vegetable-Gardening 



poor shippers, and an insipid product. From the fore- 

 going, it should not be considered that fertilizer can pro- 

 duce a fine crop from a poor variety, but by properly 

 balancing the fertilizer a fine crop can often be raised 

 when otherwise it would fail. 



The following table gives approximate fertilizer for- 

 mulae: 



Ammonia . 



Pounds to the Acre 



400 to 600 cottonseed meal ; or 



250 to 350 dried blood; or 



175 to 250 nitrate of soda ; or 



150 to 200 sulfate of ammonia. 



Phosphoric acid . . 650 to 900 acid phosphate. 

 Potash . . . 



'800 to 1200kainit; or 



125 to 200 muriate of potash ; or 



125 to 200 high-grade sulfate of potash ; or 



250 to 300 low-grade sulfate of potash. 



Planting watermelons. 



The land should be laid off in checks about 6 by 6 feet 

 and the fertilizer put in the hill. One should not deceive 

 himself into the belief that it is sufiicient to run a plow 

 through the hill once or twice to mix the fertilizer with the 

 soil. The melon-grower who uses commercial fertilizer 

 must, sooner or later, learn that to mix the fertilizer 

 thoroughly with the soil means about three times as much 

 work as most growers usually put into it. The fertilizer 

 should be scattered in a circle about three feet in diameter 

 about the place where the hill is to stand, and applied 

 a week or ten days before planting. Some successful 

 growers now work the fertilizer in the fiurow, and then 

 turn up beds instead of hilling. 



