HOME VEGETABLE GARDENING 
WATERMELON 
F OR thousands of years natives of Africa and tropical 
Asia have known watermelons and cherished the 
fruits of wild kinds as one of nature’s gifts. Perhaps in 
no other country do they grow as perfectly as with us, 
and no country has paid more attention to developing 
this delicious vegetable fruit than our South. 
Watermelons thrive anywhere where the temperature 
remains above sixty degrees for at least one hundred days. 
They are not particular as to soil, though a sandy loam 
suits them best and they reach near perfection on the 
newly plowed prairie lands of the Central West. 
There are many kinds of many shapes and colors. 
The early sorts lack the sweetness of the later maturing 
varieties, but all are grown alike and require no partic- 
ular care or attention or cultivation. How you can 
grow watermelons is told on pages 241-244. 
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