50 
H. G. Hastings & Co., Seedsmen, Atlanta, Georgia. 
FACTS ABOUT WATERMELON SEED 
Outside of our specially grown watermelon seed there are three 
general sources of supply of melon seed for the seed trade of the 
Unitea States. 
First is seed from Kansas and Nebraska. These crops are grbwn 
on rich prairie soils forcing a rank growth of vine and rapidly 
growing inferior, tasteless melons. Growing season is very short 
and a large part of the melons never mature very fully. Seed is 
saved from everything, big, little, perfect and imperfect, matured 
melons and half ripe ones with hard centers. Like produces like 
and almost every instance M^here we have investigated cases of 
melon crops having hard centers the seed has come from seedsmen 
who obtained their seed from these Western prairie States. 
The second source of supply is from the Southern States, where 
crops ace grown for seed purposes but the seed saved from every- 
thing large and small, perfect and imperfect. We see crops of this 
kind every year where seed is being saved from melons weighing 
not more than 2 or 3 pounds, most of them being diseased and 
rotten ended. Many Northern houses use this Southern seed and 
have been for years. They can buy it and sell it at a low price but 
you do not and cannot expect to get first-class melons from seed 
saved like that. With such seed every cent saved by you in pur- 
chase price costs you dollars in the crops grown from. it. 
The third source of supply is the worst. In Florida, Georgia and 
Texas there are tens of thousands of acres planted each year 'for 
shipment to northern markets. The shipping season is a short one 
and usually about half the melons produced are shipped and this 
part shipped Is always the pick of the fields. The smaller. Inferior, 
late melons, the “cxills” are left. After the shipping season is over 
hands go through the fields and seed is saved from everything that 
is left. Every melon fit to save seed from has been shipped and the 
seed is saved only from melons that should have been used to feed 
the hogs. 
Hastings’ watermelon seed is from crops grown exclusively for 
seed purposes in the South. Our crops are given the highest cul- 
ture. Not a melon is sold or shipped from our seed crops. In seed 
saving no seed is taken from imperfect melons or from melons 
weighing less than 15 pounds. Seed is saved only from the very 
best melons, and we feed hogs on melons that almost every other 
grower gets seed from. 
The South is the natural home of the watermelon and every one |i 
wants to grow them to perfection. There is nothing that takes the 
place of a good, large, sweet, cool, juicy watermelon on a hot sum- {|j 
mer’s day and our special strains of Southern-grown melon seed . 
should be planted in every garden where something especially good 
is wanted. | 
Melons do best in rich, sandy loam soil but where this is not | 
obtainable they can be grown on light, clay soils or warm, sunny | 
hillsides. The best fertilizer is well-rotted stable manure although |l 
commercial fertilizer can be used to advantage w'here manure is | 
not obtainable. Hills should be 8 to 10 feet apart each way and 8 f 
to 10 seeds planted in each hill, thinning out afterwards to 2 or 3 | 
after the rough leaves have formed. Watermelons do not root very | 
deeply but they do spread. In applying fertilizer spread it to a || 
considerable distance, say 2 feet out from the center of each hill as | 
it is well to encourage this natural tendency of the roots to spread. I 
Where it is necessary to use commercial fertilizer use one as nearly l 
like the following formula as possible: Nitrogen 3 per cent, potash | 
8 per cent, available phosphoric acid 8 per cent. This formula has I 
given best of results on melon lands. Use from two to three pounds I 
of the above formula to each hill, working it in and mixing it | 
thoroughly with the soil some ten days or two weeks before the 1 
seed is planted. First plantings can be made as soon as the soil i 
gets warm in the spring; succession plantings can be made up to ' 
June in this latitude. Cultivate lightly until the runners come 
well out into the middles. If large weeds come, cut them off; do ( 
not pull them up as this disturbs the roots and wines. Vines after ' 
they begin to run should never be moved or disturbed as it always I 
injures the crop. When there are plenty of blooms on the plants I 
pinch off the ends of the runners. When extra large melons are | 
desired leave only one plant to each hill and only one or two melons I 
to each vine. It is useless to try to grow good melons in the South i] 
from any seed excent carefully selected Southern grown seed. In i 
home garden plantings, delayed until the ground is warm, one 
ounce of seed will usually plant 25 to 30 hills or at the rate of 114 
to 114 pounds per acre. In the extra early plantings for shipping 
crops” it is advisable to use at least 3 pounds per acre to insure a i 
stand in the rather cool ground. Melons require about 120 days to ; 
mature. 
HASTINGS’ WATERMELON SEED 
Is Strictly Southern Grown and Saved from Crops Grown Exclusively for Seed. All Seed Taken from Selected ill 
Melons Only. No Melons Sold or Shipped from Our Crops | 
A Good, Sweet, Juiey Old-T'ime Augusta Kattlesuake Watermelon Grown from Hastings’ Seed 
Hastings’ Augusta Rattlesnake Watermelon 
melons grown than the Rattlesnake in certain Georgia localities, especially suited to it. No one has such pure seed of this famous varietv 
as ourselves. It is simplv perfection of the Rattlesnake strain. Every seed we offer is taken from melons weighing 30 pounds or more 
and 60 to 75-pound Rattlesnake melons are nothing unusual in our seed crops. If you have been buying seed of the Georgia Rattle- 
snake, as commouly sold, you do not know how good a Rattlesnake melon can be. Melons grown from pur seed of this are so fine that 
they cannot fall to give vo’u satisfaction. We consider Augusta Rattlesnake the best second early melon there is. Plant, at least, a few 
Of them this year. Pkt., 10 cts.; oz., 15 cts.j % lb., 35 cts.; lb., $1.00; postpaid. lO-pound lots or over, not prepaid, 75 cents per pound. 
