258 ENCYCLOPEDIA OF PRACTICAL HORTICULTURE 
sprout is scarcely discernible from grass 
at the first; it grows slowly too, and re- 
quires a great amount of hand weeding 
where the soil is full of weed seeds, and 
where the weeds spring up rapidly after 
spring plowing. This hand weeding is 
very difficult work. If it is done by adults, 
they must be for hours in a stooping pos- 
ture or walk on their knees along the 
rows. 
Onions grow well on sandy soils and on 
voleanic ash soils. Land that has been 
recently cleared of sagebrush is good for 
onions, because there the onions grow to 
a large size, and the first year, especially 
after the sagebrush has been grubbed, 
there are no weeds of any consequence to 
interfere with cultivation; the labor cost 
is low. . Only the ordinary tools need to 
be used and the returns are thus relatively 
large. 
Cantaloupes 
Cantaloupes have been successfully 
grown between the trees and are adapt- 
able to many soils and climates, are of 
fine quality, are easily grown, and if 
planted soon enough to find an early mar- 
ket, bring very profitable returns. 
Watermelons 
Watermelons are sometimes grown, but 
the difficulty is generally that the trees 
require more water than is required for 
the watermelon. In fact, after the water- 
melon is formed and as large as a man’s 
fist, it requires very little water, and is 
of better quality without it, while the 
trees need water throughout the season. 
Many of the failures to produce good 
watermelons on damp soils or irrigated 
lands grow out of the fact that the vines 
get too much water. Some persons sup- 
pose that because the watermelon is most- 
ly composed of water and because of the 
name, it should have a great amount of 
water. This is a mistake, and for the 
reason that the watermelon rind is tough 
and solid, allowing very little evapora- 
tion, nearly all the water pumped by the 
root system and carried into the melon 
is retained as if it were pumped into a 
jug. It is not that the melon receives 
more water than the leaves that causes it 
to be so juicy in the autumn and the 
leaves to be dry, but it is because the 
leaves have given up their water by the 
process of evaporation and the melon has 
not. It is therefore necessary to exercise 
Karly’s) Watermelon Patch. 
Cleared of sage brush in February, plowed 
in March, planted in May, crop in August. 
