1009. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
453 
GROWING GOOD MUSKMELONS. 
Quality is the thing most sought for 
in growing muskmelons, and often the 
most lacking. Therefore, the grower, 
and especially the grower for home 
use or a home market, finds to his dis¬ 
gust that if his crop is not of good 
quality it will go begging for a mar¬ 
ket. In fact the market for musk¬ 
melons grown anywhere depends more 
on quality than any other fruit. In 
no other one thing does the old say¬ 
ing, “A good article makes a market 
and a poor one spoils it,” apply more 
than in muskmelons. After growing 
melons for a number of years, and 
studying and experimenting with them, 
I have found that good quality mel¬ 
ons depend on two conditions: a per¬ 
fect vine and good weather, especially 
at ripening time. A perfect vine will 
be one that is started right, fed right 
and taken such care of from start to 
finish that there will be no check in 
its growth. The first thing will be 
proper planting. 1 am speaking of the 
northern part of the United States, 
where success with all of the semi- 
tropical plants is eternal vigilance. It 
is useless to plant before it gets warm. 
If you plant seed in the open ground 
do not plant before May 20, and the 
25th is better, especially if the season 
is at all backward. Hardy plants 
such as cabbage and onions during 
cold wet weather make root growth 
and get stronger, and when warm 
weather does come are that much 
ahead, but cold wet weather curls up 
a melon plant and turns it yellow, 
checks it and often it never survives 
and in any case is no further ahead 
than later-started plants that do not 
get this check. If plants are started 
under glass do not start until May 10, 
then from the 1st to the 10th of June 
your plants will be ready to plant out, 
which is early enough. 
Now as to planting. Do not crowd. 
Plant plenty of seeds, so that you will 
have a full stand, after thinning. 1 
like to plant in rows, not in hills, six 
feet apart, and thin plants to stand 
three feet apart for the large strong 
growing kinds, and two feet for the 
smaller kinds. Do not thin all at 
once, but keep thinning as they crowd, 
always taking out the weakest plants, 
and when all danger of cutworms and 
striped beetles is over give them their 
final thinning, and you will have a full 
stand of extra strong plants, and they 
will have 18 square feet all their very 
own to grow and thrive in. 
Then a melon plant needs liberal 
feeding. All the elements of fertility 
should be supplied in abundance, and 
above all a soil full of humus. A 
clover sod turned down the previous 
Summer and covered during the Win¬ 
ter or early Spring with good stable 
manure and plowed and disked and 
harrowed until it is thoroughly stirred 
and mixed, makes a good place for 
them, or any ground that has been 
manured until it is full of humus and 
works up mellow is good. Mark out 
a few days before planting in rows 
six feet apart. Run a shovel plow 
through those marks and fill this fur¬ 
row nearly full of well-rotted manure 
and then take a fine-tooth horse culti¬ 
vator and narrow it up and mix this 
manure in the furrow. Then harrow 
the field crossways of the rows to fill 
up the furrows and level the ground. 
An Acme harrow is good for this. Be 
sure to mark both ends of one of the 
outside rows so as to know where to 
begin to mark again when we want 
to plant, so as to get the seed over 
these furrows. 
So far we have supplied the piece 
with humus, and in doing so have 
used material with considerable nitro¬ 
gen, especially if we have used a clo¬ 
ver sod, so to balance this up, which I 
believe is the secret in using commer¬ 
cial fertilizer, we should supply more 
potash and phosphoric acid. To sup¬ 
ply the potash good unleached hard¬ 
wood ashes are very good. Put on 
a bushel to the square rod, or about 
150 bushels to the acre. In the ab¬ 
sence of the ashes use 200 pounds of 
muriate of potash. Spread either the 
ashes or potash salts broadcast, and 
harrow in. The phosphoric acid can 
be supplied either with acid phosphate, 
at the rate of from 600 to 800 pounds 
per acre, less if ashes are used, or 
bone meal can be used, the finer the 
better. Flour of bone or dissolved 
bone is good. Apply from 300 to 400 
pounds per acre, also broadcast. Or¬ 
dinarily this feeding will be sufficient, 
but should June be cold and wet after 
the plants are started an application 
of 100 pounds of nitrate of soda scat¬ 
tered along the rows will give them a 
start. Cultivation must play an im¬ 
portant part in growing good melons, 
for in the absence of irrigation it is 
the only way we can keep a supply 
of moisture, which is very essential to 
the proper development of good fruit. 
Keep at it continually until the vines 
cover the ground and then the last 
one can be given by turning the vines 
back, of course being careful not to 
handle them too roughly. At this 
time a good mulch of anything that 
will cover the ground, such as rotted 
manure, grass clipped from the lawn, 
green clover, or the pea vines that are 
pulled from the garden will help keep 
in the moisture and the fruit will be 
better. 
Cutworms, striped beetles and lice 
are the three insects to watch out for. 
Plow in the Fall for cutworms, plant 
plenty of seed and go over the rows 
often, and wherever a cut-off plant 
is found, find the worm, as he will 
take a row several feet in length if 
left alone. For the striped beetle use 
land plaster, air-slaked lime, or any 
dust; land plaster is best, in which 
is mixed a small quantity of Paris 
green. Dust this on as soon as a 
beetle appears, and keep at it. Get it 
on the under side of the leaves and 
around on the ground around the 
plant. Tobacco dust mixed in the row 
at planting time aqd dusting from 
time to time as it is washed in will 
keep off lice. I am of the opinion that it 
will tend to disgust the beetles. If 
lice appear in spite of tobacco dust, 
a thorough spraying with strong to¬ 
bacco water, followed with kerosene- 
soap emulsion will generally do the 
job. I have been troubled with blight 
very little, and have never sprayed, 
but am planning to do so this Sum¬ 
mer, as an insurance, as we never 
know when such things will come. 
Begin early and do it well; effective 
spraying is only done by /thorough 
work. 
Now we have done all we can to get 
a perfect vine, and weather conditions 
will play a more important part than 
anything else in giving this fruit a 
sweet flavor or making them tasteless. 
Cold and wet weather together, or 
either one, has a tendency to spoil 
the flavor, also an excess of moisture 
has a tendency to make some varieties 
crack open. It would seem on first 
thought that it was almost beyond 
human control if weather conditions 
are not right, but a few things can 
be done to offset even the weather. 
Location of the patch, kind of soil and 
even steady growth will often make 
melons ripen early enough to get them 
out of the way of bad weather. A 
southern slope or ' southwestern light 
soil and plenty of humus in the soil 
will make a great difference in mak¬ 
ing the crop early. Then the question 
of moisture that I mentioned before. 
If an abundance of moisture has been 
supplied all through its growth, not 
too much, but enough, I do not think 
a wet spell will be as apt to spoil 
them or crack them as where they 
have been allowed to suffer for want 
of moisture, which often happens dur¬ 
ing the first half of August. 
I have not said much about start¬ 
ing the plants under glass, but this is 
one of the best wavs to hasten the 
maturity of the crop to get it out of the 
way of bad weather. Start your plants 
in berry baskets or plant boxes, using 
earth that is very fibrous and loose. 
Plant your seed, as I have said, about 
May 10 in a warm hotbed. As soon as 
well started begin to air well and do 
not draw them at all, but aim to grow 
them strong and sturdy. If welt 
grown they will be strong, healthy 
plants, ready to fall over in about 
three weeks. Plant plenty of seed, but 
thin out to two plants when they are 
ready to set out. When the weather 
gets warm and settled, in this latitude 
not before the first of June, plant 
them out, wet them well and they will 
come out of the boxes without dis¬ 
turbing the roots at all. Choose a 
warm still day; if the sun does not 
shine very bright all the better, but 
be sure it is still. Open holes in the 
furrows where you put the rotted ma¬ 
nure and set them carefully, firming 
the ground around them, and if quite 
dry a good wetting is beneficial. Be¬ 
gin cultivating as soon as possible af¬ 
ter setting out, and be sure to stir 
the ground around the plants. There 
is one other thing that will make the 
crop earlier and the melons better, and 
that is pinching back the runners. In 
Henderson’s “Gardening for Profit” it 
is recommended, and in the cultural 
directions in several prominent seed 
catalogues, but I looked in vain for 
an article from actual experience from 
some grower who had practiced it. So 
last Summer, having a patch of about 
three-fourths of an acre, I concluded 
to try it; did it myself to know that 
it was done as I wanted it done. I 
found that it was not a very big job. 
I went over the patch three times, 
pinching back all runners that were 
from one foot to 18 inches long. I 
watched carefully for results and found 
that on runners that were pinched 
back in four days a lateral, sometimes 
as high as three, would be formed, and 
a tiny melon would appear on these, 
while on runners Inot pinched back 
there would not be melons set for 
sometimes two weeks later. More mel¬ 
ons will set earlier, and therefore get 
ripe, . than when this method is not 
practiced. In summing the subject up 
we find to grow good melons they 
must grow steadily from start to fin¬ 
ish, and to do that must be started 
right, fed right, kept supplied with 
moisture, 'not crowded, kept free from 
insect pests and blight, planted on a 
location and such soil as will hurry 
them along, and pinched back to form 
early fruit, so as to ripen the crop 
ahead of bad weather that usually 
catches a late crop. 
Minnesota. george tong. 
TRADE MARK 
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DODD & STRUTHERS 
N. DES MOINES 
IOWA 'S 
WRITE TO DODD 8 STRUTHERS, DES MOINES, IOWA, TOR THEIR EREE BOOK ABOUT LIGHTNING 
