CULTURAL DIRECTIONS 
367 
about four weeks old. In many other parts of the coun- 
try, glass is used to a greater or less extent in forward- 
ing the plants before it is safe to set them in the field. 
It is generally conceded that sowing should not occur 
more than four weeks before setting in the field, because 
of the danger of the plants becoming stunted in the 
frames or the houses or receiving a check when taken to 
the field. Some growers, however, keep them under 
glass six weeks, which necessitates at least two shifts 
in pots and a liberal amount of space. 
Paper or earthen pots, berry baskets and veneer boxes 
are in general use. Some growers also plant on inverted 
sods or in hills in flats, and block out the soil around the 
plants with a sharp butcher knife when planting in the field. 
The Montreal melons are sown in any convenient seed 
bed, and the young seedlings set in 3 or 4-inch pots, and 
shifted to larger pots for the early crop, the seed for 
which is sown earlier than when only one shift is made. 
The Indiana Experiment Station (Ind. Sta. Bui. 123, 
p. 6) gives the following description of the method em- 
ployed at Decker: “The beds are snbstantially built of 
2x8 planking and are 9 feet wide and from 25 to 40 feet 
long. Many of them hold 2,000 to 3,000 young plants, or 
enough to set out nearly two acres. A single grower 
frequently has a range of 30 to 40 of these hotbeds, en- 
abling him to set from 50 to 75 acres of cantaloupes. The 
beds are usually placed in a warm and sheltered situa- 
tion, so as to get the full benefit of the early spring sun. 
The seed is started during the last week of March or 
the first of April in small veneer boxes. These are about 
5 inches square and are similar to berry boxes, except 
that the bottoms are flush instead of recessed. They are 
placed side by side in the bottom of a hotbed and filled 
with finely prepared earth and compost. Great care is 
taken with the material for the seed bed, and it is very 
thoroughly worked over before being used. 
