192 GARDEN PROFITS 



week, used alternately, manure water and nitrate 

 of soda, or sulphate of ammonia in solution. If 

 you use the chemically pure, a 6-inch potful is 

 sufficient for a barrel of water. In order to have 

 big stringless parsnips never let the plants suffer 

 for water. Give them a good shaking up occa- 

 sionally with some soda. 



Don't Forget the Asparagus Bed. Asparagus plants 

 will now be building crowns for next season's 

 growth, and the bed needs attention, because the 

 better the crowns the better the cut next year. 

 Give one application of salt during the month at 

 the rate of one pound of salt to every twenty square 

 feet, or 500 pounds to a 60 x 180 ft. bed. If 

 the bed looks poor and hasn't a healthy, dark green 

 color give one application of nitrate of soda, using 

 one pound to 100 square feet. Apply it during 

 a rainfall so that it will dissolve at once. Look 

 out for asparagus beetle; if it appears, dust the 

 plants with hellebore powder, early in the morning 

 when they are still wet with dew, or spray them 

 with Paris green or arsenate of lead. 



Ripening and Picking Melons. Now is the critical 

 stage in the growth of a melon vine, for the fruit 

 is swelling fast. Use Bordeaux as a preventive 

 against any possible blight and if dry weather is 

 bothering the vines water the roots thoroughly. 

 Do this in the morning after the sun gets strong. 

 Toward the end of the month some of the melons 

 should be ripening. Look over them carefully 

 but never pull a muskmelon from the vine — it 

 will part easily from the stem when ripe. If you 



