CHAPTER III 

 SOILS 



For Muskmelons. — Most writers on muskmelons 

 advocate the selection of rather heavy, sandy loams 

 for the best success in commercial melon growing, 

 for the reason that the muskmelon seems to require 

 a soil which contains an abundance of vegetable 

 matter on which the plant can draw for its food 

 supply during the entire season, rather than during 

 a comparatively short space of time. While it is 

 true that the muskmelon can be grown successfully 

 on almost any good loamy soil, it is a fact that in 

 the melon regions of the middle West, as well as 

 in the South, the sandy soils are almost universally 

 selected for commercial purposes where it is possi- 

 ble to do so. 



Some of the most successful growers in the Ohio 

 and Mississippi valleys select a sandy soil that is 

 rich enough, or that can be made rich enough, to 

 produce a good stand of clover. Then, in order to 

 put it in the best possible condition for melons and 

 to keep it so, they arrange a three or four-year rota- 

 tion, starting with clover, then melons, then wheat, 

 and then back to clover for one or two years. By 

 this process a minimum amount of manure is re- 

 quired to keep up the fertility, as these crops fur- 

 nish a good supply of humus in the soil, and what 

 manure is used for the melons is usually applied in 

 the hills, although some broadcast it "for musk- 

 melons, as the hills are much closer together than 

 in the case of watermelons. 



