I 
BQZ 
THE 
RURAI, 
NEW-YORKER 
April 18, 
Protecting Early Cantaloupes. 
By placing a five-inch square frame 
(94-inch stuff) four inches high, covered 
with tobacco cloth over a hill of canta¬ 
loupes, at the usual time of planting, 
will it make them any earlier? It will 
almost insure a perfect stand, and will 
keep away all insects until the plants 
get four or five rough leaves. I remem¬ 
ber when I farmed in Southside, Vir¬ 
ginia, we always made a tent of two birch 
twigs covered with tobacco cloth. We 
did it not to get the melons any earlier, 
but to protect them from the striped 
beetle. We never grew them for market, 
just for home use, but I remember well 
how much faster those grew that were 
protected by canvas. ’ I am now in a 
great commercial cantaloupe country and 
would like to get my fruit in with the 
earliest. If I can get them well started 
I do not see why I should not be in with 
the first. They usually commence sell¬ 
ing around $2.50 for carrier holding 45; 
in a week they get to $1.50, in two weeks 
to $1, and the remainder of the season 
from 45 to 60 cents. So you can readily 
see the importance of getting some in 
very early. I am only a small grower— 
about three acres. I composted my ma¬ 
nure with ditch scrapings, one load ma¬ 
nure and one load scrapings alternately 
on the pile, which was done in early 
Winter. I turned the pile three times 
and late in January. I put it in the 
checks 5x4. one big forkful to each cross¬ 
ing. When I plant what grade of fertil¬ 
izer must I use and how much to the 
hill, and will it be necessary to make an¬ 
other application? It will cost around 
$15 per acre to cover the hills. If it is 
a success the little frames will last sev¬ 
eral years, the canvas will have to be 
replaced annually, but it is quite cheap, 
costing by the piece, two and one-third 
cents a yard. Will you give me your ad¬ 
vice about this matter? I. s. w. 
Maryland. 
I have no doubt that, other things be¬ 
ing equal, your plan of covering each 
cantaloupe hill will bring them earlier. 
Often a strong wind will do as much 
damage to young cantaloupe plants as a 
frost, and if you can keep those coverings 
in place they will serve to protect the 
plants from wind as well as from cold. 
However, I would try them on a small 
scale first and then, if satisfactory, en¬ 
large next year. Sometimes two wires 
are bent like croquet arches and placed 
in the ground over the hill so as to 
form a sort of a skeleton tent, which 
is covered with cloth. This is quite sim¬ 
ilar to your bent twig idea or plan used 
in Virginia. While these plans may be 
all right I do not think they are used to 
any great extent in a commercial way. 
The growers in this section who want 
to come on the market with the first can¬ 
taloupes, usually start the plants in cold 
frames under glass and then have them 
ready for the field about the time the field 
planted cantaloupes are appearing above 
the ground. In order to get them trans¬ 
planted without disturbing the roots it 
is necessary to plant the seeds on old 
sods, in berry baskets, or better yet in 
checks four inches apart each way, in 
a bed made up of three inches of fine ma¬ 
nure overlaid with two inches of strong 
loamy soil. When plants get out in 
rough leaf the soil and manure is cut 
clear through with a tomato blocker 
(blocker is a hilling hoe with a straight¬ 
ened shank) which leaves each plant, or 
more usually two plants, standing in a 
four-inch block of soil and manure all 
to itself. If handled carefully these 
blocks can be taken to the field in a 
cart without disturbing the roots. Plants i 
grown in this way have the advantage 
over plants started in the open field. But 
there are many chances of failures in 
such work and it should be tried out in 
a small way before going into it on a 
large scale. 
Growers in this section seldom use 
both fertilizer and manure. The plan is 
to turn down a clover sod and use fertil¬ 
izer in the hill, being careful to have the 
fertilizer well covered with soil, so that 
the seed will not come in direct contact 
with it when planting. A high-grade 
truck or vegetable fertilizer is used an¬ 
alyzing about 4-8-10. A large handful is 
placed in each cross or hill. In the ab¬ 
sence of clover sod we use a large shovel¬ 
ful of strong bog-manure under each hill, 
without fertilizer. We have found no fertil¬ 
izer or manure that will keep up a healthy 
vine growth until late in the season as 
well as a rich manure from the hog-pen. 
A second application of fertilizer will 
often aid in maintaining a heavy vine 
growth and in increasing the yield. The 
second application of fertilizer should he 
applied about the time, or a little before, 
plants begin to vine out and it should 
be harrowed in immediately. It should 
be applied at least six inches from the 
plant and care should be used to keep 
all particles of fertilizer away from the 
stem of the plant. trucker, jr. 
Sowing Asparagus Seed in Bed. 
I would like to say that I differ with 
C..W. P. (page 436) in regard to the 
sowing of asparagus seed where the 
plants are to remain. In the first place 
there is no need for the roots being eight 
inches in the ground, unless you want 
to cut the hard white-butted shoots, for 
the markets are now very generally de¬ 
manding tender green asparagus. But 
if this is the case and you want the roots 
deep in the ground there is no difficulty 
in getting them there from seed. I make 
trenches about 15 inches deep and fill 
them half full of fine rotten manure, cov¬ 
er lightly with soil and sow the seed, and 
when the plants are a few inches high 
thin them, and then work the soil to 
them as they grow till level. Then I 
give them several dressings of nitrate of 
soda during the Summer to push a 
strong growth, and I have cut fairly 
good shoots in 12 months after sowing 
the seed, and the second year cut fine 
shoots when transplanted roots would be 
making them like knitting needles. Four 
years ago I left a row in my garden for 
transplanting, and the remainder left as 
usual, and to this day the transplanted 
plants have not caught up in size of 
shoots to the ones that were never re¬ 
moved. That there is any more difficulty 
in combating insects and weeds than with 
the transplanted roots, I have never dis¬ 
covered. I can get .asparagus at least a 
year sooner by untransplanted roots than 
by transplanting, and I want my roots 
rather near the surface, where they start 
earlier and give me tender green shoots. 
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