132 Home Vegetable Gardening 



the hill besides that plowed under, make the best 

 combination for results. Such special hills are pre- 

 pared by marking off, digging out the soil to the 

 depth of eight to ten inches, and eighteen inches to 

 two feet square, and incorporating several forkfuls 

 of the compost. A little guano, or better still cotton- 

 seed meal, say ^ to i gill of the former, or a gill 

 of the latter, mixed with the compost when putting 

 into the hill, will also be very good. Hills to be 

 planted early should be raised an inch or two above 

 the surface, unless they are upon sloping ground. 



The greatest difificulty in raising all the vine 

 fruits — melons, etc. — is in successfully combating 

 their insect enemies — the striped beetle, the borer 

 and the flat, black "stink-bug," being the worst of 

 these. Remedies will be suggested in the next chap- 

 ter. But for the home garden, where only a few 

 hills of each will be required, by far the easiest and 

 the only sure way of fighting them will be by pro- 

 tecting with bottomless boxes, large enough to cover 

 the hills, and covered with mosquito netting, or 

 better, "plant-protecting cloth," which has the addi- 

 tional merit of giving the hills an early start. These 

 boxes may be easily made of one-half by eight-inch 

 boards, or from ordinary cracker-boxes, such as used 

 for making flats. Plants so protected in the earlier 

 stages of growth will usually either not be attacked, 

 or will, with the assistance of the remedies described 



