14 



THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 



February, 1911 



The late kinds require more room than the early ones. Turpens Gray, a reliable market variety 



The Georgia Sugar Loaf is an oblong form 

 of this same melon. 



Alabama Sweet, or Bradford, is a very 

 fine, medium-early melon of a medium 

 dark green color with light green stripes. 

 The flesh is a bright scarlet and the seed 

 is white. This melon is also catalogued 

 by seedsmen under the following names: 

 Tinker, Hoke Smith, McGuire and Pearson. 



Sweetheart is a very good late, round 

 melon for home use and market. Of a 

 mottled light green with thick rind, it grows 

 to large size, and is a good keeper; the 

 seeds are black. 



The Triumph is considered the largest 

 of melons, and for this reason it is a good 

 variety for growing for exhibition purposes. 

 In quality it is very poor. Primus Jones 

 is an excellent large, late melon, oblong, 

 dark green with very narrow light stripes, 

 bright red flesh and very sweet. 



Angel Kiss is a very popular melon in 

 the Southwest for home use, on account 

 of its good quality and earliness. It is 

 ready for use about the same time that 

 Halbert Honey is. It is of medium 

 size, the flesh is a deep crimson, seed very 

 small and white, the rind thin and almost 

 white. 



In the home garden plant melons after 

 beans and garden peas. The soil should 



be plowed up with a large one-horse turn 

 plow, or a two-horse plow, two months 

 before the seeds are to be sown. Lay off 

 or mark out the row with a large turn plow. 

 Plow right and left so as to get a deep 

 furrow (the rows should be from six to 

 ten feet apart; six feet for small varieties 

 and home gardens, ten feet for large varie- 

 ties and field cultivation). 



At least two weeks before planting, put 

 one or two large shovelfuls of well-decayed 

 stable, horse or cow manure in these fur- 

 rows every six to eight feet. If possible 

 place a handful of some high-grade fer- 

 tilizer at each hill, and be sure to mix the 

 fertilizer well with the soil. Cover the 

 manure and fertilizer with four inches of 

 soil. If manure cannot be had, use fer- 

 tilizer and cotton seed instead. 



For early melons, plant when trees are 

 out in leaf, which is from the first to the 

 last of February in the Lower South, 

 March in. the Middle South, and April 

 in the Upper South, and May and June 

 in the North. For succession, plant every 

 three or four weeks. One of the most 

 important points in growing fine melons 

 is good seed. No matter how high you 

 intend to fertilize and cultivate, above 

 all be sure to get good seed. 



When ready to plant drop from ten to 



Panmure Allheart. a type of fruit that is worth growing because of the thin rind 



fifteen seeds on each hill and cover from 

 three-fourths to one inch deep; by using 

 plenty of seed you save replanting. It 

 is a good plan to soak the seed in water 

 for from twelve to twenty-four hours, 

 most especially in sections where it does 

 not often rain. One ounce of seed will 

 plant from twenty-four to thirty hills. 



When the plants are well up begin culti- 

 vation with a hoe and thin them out to four 

 to a hill, and when they have four or five 

 leaves give cultivation with a plow and 

 thin to one good plant to a hill. A week 

 or ten days later give them another culti- 

 vation with a plow and hoe and continue 

 to cultivate with a plow until the growth 

 of the vines prevents it. (Don't turn 

 watermelon vines; they are very tender, 

 and handling injures them.) Then culti- 

 vate with hoe only. Continue this culti- 

 vation until the melons are the size of a 

 cocoanut. 



At the last cultivation with the plow 

 many growers sow cow peas in between 

 the rows so as to shade the melons from 

 the hot sun and to enrich the soil. This 

 may be a good plan provided the peas are 

 sown thinly. If sown thickly they may 

 make a large amount of foliage which 

 would exclude all the sun from the melons 

 and in wet weather would induce decay. 



To grow extra large watermelons for 

 exhibition and other purposes, dig holes 

 two feet deep and two feet wide and ten 

 or twelve feet apart each way. In these 

 put a double handful of cotton seed and a 

 handful of high-grade fertilizer, most 

 especially rich in potash. Mix this with 

 the soil in the bottom of the hole and put 

 in seven or eight shovelfuls of well-decayed 

 horse manure. Cover this over at once 

 with fine soil; in about two weeks plant 

 the seed. Allow but one plant to a hill, 

 and only one or two melons to a vine; 

 prune the others off when they are young. 

 In dry weather give them water; make 

 holes near the plants six inches deep and 

 wide enough to hold almost two or three 

 gallons of water. Do this in the afternoon; 

 and as soon as the water has soaked in, 

 cover the hole with dry soil. This should 

 be done every other afternoon during the 

 drouths. Give frequent cultivations, once 

 every week at least, so as to keep up a 

 rapid growth. Cultivation maybe discontin- 

 ued when good-sized melons have formed. 



The black squash bug is the most de- 

 structive insect in the South. It sucks 

 the juice from the vines and from the 

 stems of the watermelons, thus prevent- 

 ing the fruit from attaining full size. It 

 also causes the leaves to rust or dry up 

 and the small melons to wither. The 

 only remedy that I am aware of is to pick 

 the bugs off by hand. Spraying the vines 

 early in spring with kerosene emulsion 

 will usually ward them off for a while. 

 Always spray late in the afternoon. Spray- 

 ing will also have a tendency to keep off 

 the plant lice which however are not very 

 troublesome here in the South, as they are 

 very soft bodied and cannot stand the hot 

 summer sun. 



