Bulletin 62. 
4 
germinate the seed, as the soil is apt to become crusted and 
dry if it is handled and pressed after irrigation. 
Plenty of seed should be used—from 10 to 15 seeds to 
each hill—and when the plants have put forth four leaves, 
thin to three plants for each hill. Cultivate and hoe suffi¬ 
ciently to secure good tilth until the vines run well, or are 
from two to three feet across the hill. Then the irrigating 
furrows should be run and cultivation cease, giving such 
hoeing as will keep down weeds. 
SEED. 
Good seed is a prime requisite for success with the can¬ 
taloupe, but not enough attention has been paid to the se¬ 
lection of it. Few have made any systematic selection of 
seed, looking well to the shape, size, solidity, depth of flesh, 
seed cavity, color of flesh and quality. Many have bought 
from dealers who knew little of the quality of seed sold, and 
the result is that many melons sold as “Rocky Ford” are 
not up to the standard. The effect of poor seed is more 
apparent in those districts in which there are many amateur 
growers, than where the older growers predominate. 
A pure Rocky P'ord cantaloupe when ripe should have a 
silver colored netting which is lace-like in appearance. The 
skin should be green turning to a peculiar gray color when 
the melon is fit for shipping. The flesh should be green in 
color and so sweet and luscious that it may be eaten close to 
the rind. The melon should have a small seed cavity and 
the portion of the flesh immediately surrounding it. be 
slightly tinged with yellow. The melon should weigh about 
one and one-half pounds and be very solid and firm. 
The cantaloupe growers should save seed from the very 
best melons, for in this way only can the quality be main¬ 
tained or improved. No grower should save seed for his 
planting without testing the quality of the melon. Occa¬ 
sionally a melon may be perfect in appearance, but not of 
first rate quality. 
HARVESTING. 
Much seed is shipped to points outside the state and 
the product from this seed is shipped to market as “ Rocky 
Ford" melons. “Rocky Ford” melons, so called, are on 
the market about the time the melon is setting on the vines 
in the Arkansas valley. A few melons are shipped the first 
week in August, but heavy shipments do not commence be¬ 
fore the middle of the month. The melons are picked into 
sacks, carried over the shoulders of the pickers, and are at 
