60 THE SEED-GROWER. 
MELON. 
The same general directions which have been given 
for producing cucumber seed, will apply for a crop of 
melon seed. The same care must be exercised to pre- 
vent mixture of varieties; all sorts of muskmelon will 
mix with each other, or they will mix with pomegran- 
ate, snake cucumber or with vegetable peach; water- 
melons will mix with each other or with preserving 
citron. 
In the Northern States, seed should be sown about 
May 20th; muskmelon in hills three feet each way, 
watermelons six feet each way; eight to ten seeds in a 
hill, thinning out to two plants in a hill. Good culti- 
vation is necessary. 
Extracting and Cleaning Seeds.—Melons for seed 
should be perfectly ripe. The same processes given for 
cucumber, to which chapter refer, will apply for ex- 
tracting and cleaning melon seeds, except that large 
watermelons must be cut in half to go into the machine 
for crushing; the same machine used for cucumbers 
may be used for melons. 
Fermentation-—For musk melon, it should not 
exceed three days; for watermelon, it usually takes 
longer than for cucumber, or until the pulp separates 
from the seed. 
For Stock Seeds and Seeds for Private Use.— 
Select the earliest, the handsomest formed and finest 
flavored perfectly ripe melons, which are true to variety. 
Market.—Upwards of 600,000 pounds of melon seeds 
are planted annually in the United States, two-thirds of 
which are the water variety, the other portion the musk 
or cantaloupe. These seeds are all produced in this 
country, by growers in nearly every State from the 
Atlantic to the Pacific. The most extensive commercial 
