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H. G. Hastings & Co., Seedsmen, Atlanta, Georgia. 
HASTINGS’ WATERMELON SEED 
Is Strictly Southern Grown and Saved from Crops Grown Exclusively for Seed. All 
Seed Taken from Selected Melons Only. No Melons Sold or Shipped from Our Crops 
FACTS ABOUT WATERMELON SEED 
Outside of our specially grown watermelon seed there are three gen¬ 
eral sources of supply of watermelon seed for the seed trade of the United 
States. 
First Is seed from Kansas and Nebraska. This seed is grown on rich 
prairie soils forcing a rank growth of vines and rapid growing, inferior 
tasteless melons. The growing season is short, a large part of the melons 
nev. r mature. The seed is saved from everything; big, little, perfect and 
imperfect, matured melons and half ripe ones with hard centers. Like 
produces like, and almost in every instance where we have investigated 
cases of watermelon crops having what are known as“hard centers” the 
seed has come from seedsmen who obtain their supply from these West¬ 
ern prairie States. 
A second source of supply is from the Southern States where crops are 
grown for see<i purposes, but seed saved from everything, large and small, 
perfect and imperfect. We have seen crops of this kind wnere seed were 
being saved from melons weighing not over two or three pounds, most of 
them diseased and rotten ended. Many Northern houses are using the 
latter seed and have been for years. They can buy and sell it at a cheap 
pirice, but you don't and ean't'expect to get good melons from seed saved 
like that. Fivery cent saved by you if you purchase such seed costs you 
dollars in vour crop grown from it. 
The third source of supply is the worst. In Florida and Georgia there 
are thousands of acres of watermelons planted every year for shipment to 
the Northern markets. The sliipiiing season is a short one and usually 
about half the melons produced are shipped, and this part shipi)ed is al¬ 
ways the pick of the patch. The small, inferior melons, the‘ culls,” are 
left. After the shipping season is over gangs of men go through the fields 
and seed is saved from everything that is left. Every melon fit to save 
seed from has been -hipiied aud seed is saved only from melons that 
should have been used to feed the hogs. 
Hastiniis’Watermelon Seed is from crops grown exclusively for 
seed purposes in the .‘south. Our crops are given highest culture. Not a 
melon is sold or shipped from our seed crojis. In seed saving no seed is 
taken from imperfect melons or from melons weighing less than 15 
pounds. Seed is saved only from the best melons and we feed hogs on 
what most every other grower gets most of his seed from. 
j HOW TO GROW GOOD MELONS 
' The South is the home of the watermelon, and every one wants to 
I grow them to perfection. There is nothing that can take the place of a 
large, sweet, juicy watermelon on a hot summer day, aud our special 
strains of Southern grown melon seed should be used in every garden in 
the South where something especially good is wanted. 
Melons do best in a rich, sandy loam soil, but where this is not obtain¬ 
able they can be grown on clay lands or warm sunny hillsides. The best 
fertilizer is well rotted stable manure. The hills should be 8 to 10 feet 
apart each way. Plow deeply and cultivate thoroughly, reducing the soil 
to a tine condition. Watermelons do not root very deeply, but they do 
spread. In applying fertilizer spread it to a considerable distance, say 3 
feet out from the center of each hill. It is well to encourage this natural 
tendency to spread the roots. Where it is necessary to use commercial 
fertilizer vise one as near the following formula as possible: Nitrogen, Z %; 
Potash, 8%; Phosphoric Acid (avallablel, 8%. This formula has given 
best results on melon lands. Use from 2 to 3 pounds of the above formula 
to each hill, working it in and mixing it thoroughly with the shil. This 
should be done 10 days to 2 weeks before the seed is planted. First plant¬ 
ings can be made as soon as soil ge s warm in the spring, and succession 
plantings can be made up to June in this latitude. Plant 8 to 10 seeds in 
each hill, thinning out after the rough leaves have formed to the 2 strong- 
est plants in each hill. Cultivate lightly until runners come out well into 
the middles. If large weeds come up, cut them off. Do not pull them up, 
as it disturbs both the roots and the vines: The vines after they begin to 
run should never be moved or disturbed. It always injures the crop. 
When there are plenty of blooms on the plants pinch off the ends of the 
runners. Where extra large melons are desired leave only 1 plant to each 
hill and only 1 or 2 melons to each vine. 
It is useless to try to grow good melons from any seed except care¬ 
fully selected Southern grown. If you have Hastings’ melon seed you 
will not be disappointed in your melon crop. In home garden plantings— 
delayed until the ground is warm—1 ounce of seed will usually plant 25 
hills; or at rate of 1*^ to pounds per acre. In the early plantings for 
shipping crops it is advisable to U'e at least 3 pounds per acre to insure a 
stand in the rather cold ground. Melous require about 125 days to mature. 
A GOOD SWEET JUICY O^D-TIME AUGUSTA RATTLESNAKE WATERMELON 
Hastings’ Augusta Rattlesnake Watermelon 
This is the variety that made Georgia famous as a melon-growing State. No 
place in the world produces sitch melons as the Rattlesnake grown in certain 
_ sections of the South. No one has such pure seed of the famous variety as our¬ 
selves. It is simply perfection. Every seed of it is taken from melons weighing .30 pounds or over and 60 to 70-pound melons are nothing unusual in 
our crops. If you have been buying seed of‘‘Georgia Rattlesnake” as usually sold you don’t know how good the Rattlesnake melon is. The melons 
grown frotn our seed of this are so tine that they cannot fail to give you entire stWisfaction. We consider "Augusta Rattlesnake” the best second early 
melon there is. Plant some of it this year. Racketj 10 c<s -5 ounce ItScts*; pounds 3o cts.; pound, $1-00; postpaid. 10-pound lots or 
over, mot prepaid. To cents per pound. 
