HOME VEGETABLE GARDENING 
WATERMELONS— THE EXTRA EARLY KINDS 
A MONG watermelons more than any other vegetable 
fruits you cannot find earliness, size, and quality 
in one and the same kind. Thus Cole’s Early and Kolb’s 
Gem are quite early, bearing ripe fruits in seventy-five to 
eighty days. But their size is comparatively small 
and their quality is very indifferent. Their usefulness 
is limited, therefore, to sections with short seasons. 
Fordhook Early , while just a few days later than above 
sorts, bears fruits as large as the top of a barrel, even 
larger, under favorable conditions, and is of truly elegant 
quality. It is a round, dark-skinned sort (see illustra- 
tion), an ideal home garden sort, and a good one for mar- 
ket. It is the earliest ripening sort, combining good qual- 
ity with fair size. Phinney’s Early is a handsomely green- 
and white-striped sort of about the same season as Ford- 
hook Early but does not grow quite so large. 
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