September, 1913 



THE (JAIIDRN AND FIELD. 



166 



Notes for September. 



— Melons. 



September uuiv be said to mark 

 the beg'inninjj of siitnmer wgvtalile 

 jj-ardening. Many people will, of 

 course, have raised seedlings al- 

 read}', but for the majority who 

 buy their seetUings or wait till 

 summer stuff is sowable outside 

 this is a very im])ortant month. 

 It is the nature of the i season ra- 

 ther than the date on the almanac 

 which should be the real guide. 

 It is not of much use planting 

 meloais, cucumbers, etc., till there 

 is some life and wanrAh in the 

 ground, nor on the other hand is it 

 good to waste any time when 

 once the soil is right, rather risk 

 a few perished seeds. All the 

 beans, except the broad bean, all 

 the cucumber tribe, tomatoes, Cape 

 Gooseberries, egg fruit, capsicums, 

 sugar corn. New Zealand spinach, 

 etc., will want pretty prom.pt at- 

 tention now. 



More heat than the cucumber, 

 but less mani'ire and less water, 

 otherwise just the same treatment 

 about sums up the melons' reci.uire- 

 raents. Tliough very much liked 

 by some people it does not seem 

 to be a generally ijspular fruit. 

 It is by no means dilFicult to grow 

 first class melons, but it wants 

 more care than others of the .same 

 group. A well prepared rooting 

 place, with a fair quantity of old 

 manure, dug in also some sandy 

 road sweepings, if the ground is 

 very stiff, is , the first step towards 

 good melons. A nice pocket of 

 well-decayed leaf mould is an ex- 

 cellent help to starting the seed- 

 lings thriftily. There are a num- 

 ber of good Varieties, red and green 

 fleshed,, heavily and lightly netted. 

 Amateur gardeners will not be able 

 to find much fault with the follow- 

 ing half dozen: Long Island, Beauty, 

 Banquet, Cham} ion Market, Rocky 

 Ford, Hackensack, and Paul Rose. 

 They may not be the best six but 

 they are at any r..te a very good 

 six, with plenty of variety. 



— Tomato. — 



Tomato seed may be sown in the 

 open during this month, and with 

 care should come along and quick- 

 Iv make fine thrifty plants, but one 

 must be on the look out for late 

 frosts. If you do not want to be 

 bothered with, transplanting, etc., 

 just sow a few .seed where you 

 want each plant to grow, and 

 afterwards weed out to the strong- 

 est seedlings. Tomatoes usually 

 come up as thick as grass, so vou 

 do not want to put in many seed 

 at each place. The plant likes a 

 rich and firm root bed, but one 

 which is quite sweet. A good wav 

 to prepare a bed is to take out a 

 trench about a foot deep, lay in a 

 covering of 3 inches of old stable 

 manure, turn this over to full 

 depth of the fork, tread it down 

 firmly, add 6 inches of earth and 

 another layer of manure, mix 

 the.se well, and firm it, return the 

 rest of the earth and lay on a 

 thin coating of manure, turn, this 

 over lightly and leave in the 

 rough for a week. At the end of 

 that time turn the top spit over 

 lightly with a fork, rake smooth 

 with a dishing towards the cen- 

 tre. If the surface soil is not to 

 vour liking a small potful of sandy 

 earth put at each place you are 

 going to sow and pressed firm and 

 level with the ground will rectify 



that. On this sprinkle half a 

 do/.en seed, cover with less than 

 half an inch of the same soil and 

 give one more pat with the foot or 

 spade. A further thin covering of 

 manure will be an improvement, 

 especially if the weather is dry. 

 ICighteen inches to two feet apart 

 in the row is a satisfactory dis- 

 tance. As to varieties, there are 

 many and most of them are good, 

 it is really more a matter of 

 growing than of naming. If you 

 want a very large tomato there is 

 Ponderosa, or better still, though 

 not as large as Large Red. Seed 

 grown under this nam.e gives very 

 varied Results. At its best it is a 

 very fine fruit, large, rich in 

 colour, comes early to fruiting, is 

 solid in ilesh, and of good flavour 

 and a heavy bearer. Burwood's 

 Prize is another very fine variety, 

 we have had some very even sized 

 heavy tomatoes of this sort, of 

 better appearance but not so pro- 

 lific as Large Red. The plant is 

 of very leafy growth, which is 

 sometimes an advantage. Earli- 

 ana is of course well known as 

 one of the very best. Wilding's 

 Early Prolific is not largely 

 grown, we had some seed from Mr. 

 C. French, of Victoria, some two 

 or three years ago, and a very 

 strong recommendation of its all 

 round excellence. It is certainly 

 a valuable variety. Dwarf, con- 

 pact, early, holds its bloom well, 

 fruits in ' large but not tight 

 bunches, fruit of good colour, aver- 

 ao^es fair medium size, flesh firm 

 and of nice crisp flavour. Some 

 friends to whom we gave some of 

 the seed reported very favourably. 

 " The best 1' have grown," said one 

 amateur, and a large grower who 

 saw a few plants, remarked, "It 

 looks good, it probably is good, 

 and I am certainlv going to give 

 it a trial." After selecting one's 

 varieties and sowing the seed there 

 is of course a good deal to be 

 done before picking a crop, but any 

 of the above will do their share if 

 the grower will do Ms. 



— Cucumber. — 



The cucumber is another subject 

 with which culture counts for much, 

 more than kind. It does not, in 

 fact, matter much how you spell 

 its particular variental nam-e, as 

 long as you do. not forget_ the 

 manure barrow when sowing it or 

 the water tap when growing it. 

 Within reason one cannot make 

 the bed too rich or keep it too 

 moist. If vou bear this in mind 

 and act on it, cucumbers will 

 grow riotously and fruit prodigous- 

 fy. If you want to grow really 

 bandsonie cucumbers. Telegraph is 



