42 
House & Garden 
HOME GROWN MELONS of QUALITY PLUS 
Methods Whereby Your Just Suspicions of Fruit Store Cantaloupes Give Place to the 
Certainty Jf r hich Comes From Raising Your Own and Raising 1 hem Right 
WILLIAM C. McCOLLOM 
When properly grown, muskmelons are 
unsurpassed for the table. Quality of 
soil, of variety and the date of souring 
are factors 
When the frames 
have been in place a 
few days the seed 
may be sown 
P i''ROM the sublime to the 
ridiculous—that expresses 
the differences in melons. 
Prom equator to pole there is 
no fruit more delectable, 
luscious or more genuinely 
appreciated than good musk¬ 
melons; yet where is anything 
more disappointing than v a 
poor one? Many who have 
their own gardens and abun¬ 
dant facilities for growing 
quality melons have yet to 
realize the possibilities of 
this fruit. 
Melons are exacting. They 
require skilled care to bring 
out their best qualities, yet they are worthy of 
any efforts bestowed upon them. If you want 
melons with the odor of delicate perfume and 
flesh that for real richness of flavor is un¬ 
challengeable, you must be prepared to work 
for them. There is no sense in saying that you 
can grow good melons with little if any effort, 
for you can’t. 
Good melons are not possible in the latitude 
of New York without frames, as a rule. These 
frames—they are really bottomless boxes with 
glass covers—can be purchased ready-made; 
or they are quite easy to build yourself. They 
should measure about 24” square, 9 high in 
front and 12" in the rear. 
Melons must have rich soil that is light and 
full of fiber. They make an enormous root 
system though of a very limited range; there¬ 
fore the plant food must be readily accessible 
to the roots. Here is the secret, if there is any, 
of good melons. Dig holes about 3 across and 
2' deep, from 6’ to 8' apart each way. Fill 
the holes with a compost made of two-thirds 
chopped sod and one-third well rotted barnyard 
or stable manure, with a little lime added to 
correct the soil acids. Tramp with the feet 
as you fill. Where the soil is heavy and does 
not drain well, a little drainage should be pro¬ 
vided by placing some broken brick or other 
coarse material in the bottom of the hole. The 
soil should be raised about 4 above the grade. 
The melon frames can then be set in position, 
using a line to keep them straight for appear¬ 
ances’ sake, and leaving them closed for several 
days so the soil will be thoroughly heated be¬ 
fore sowing the seeds. 
Melon frames are simply 
bottomless, glass covered 
boxes, each large enough 
to surround one hill 
Flower pots placed under 
the melons to raise them 
from the ground make for 
even ripening 
Sowing the Seed 
Use plenty of seeds when sowing, as thin¬ 
ning out is so simple a task that there is no 
excuse for taking any chances of having to fill 
in blanks. The seeds should be covered about 
1" to 1 yf' deep. Keep the frames closed until 
the seeds germinate, after which time ventila¬ 
tion must be attended to in the morning so that 
the frames will be dry at night, and water 
only on bright days so the plants will dry off 
quickly. Keep the surface of the soil stirred 
with a hand cultivator to reduce the need of 
watering to the minimum. Air should be ad¬ 
mitted during the day, especially in sunny 
weather. The ventilation should be gradually 
increased as the weather grows warmer, so that 
by the time it is necessary to remove the frames 
At full maturity the melon parts com¬ 
pany with its stem at a mere touch. Do 
not pick it before this stage of ripeness 
is reached 
—which should be when they are no longer 
able to accommodate the plants—the melons 
will be thoroughly hardened. 
The seeds are usually sown around the 
middle of April, and the frames can be re¬ 
moved about the third week in May. The 
plants are then trained out evenly and care¬ 
fully and the shoots pegged in position. Birch 
twigs bent double until they break are good 
for this last operation. The open spaces of 
earth between the hills should be turned over 
with a digging fork when the frames are re¬ 
moved, thus keeping down the weed growth. 
Melons are subject to blight, for which there 
is no cure, though Bordeaux mixture applied 
as a preventive about every three weeks will 
keep the vines healthy. Any infected leaves 
should be picked off and burned. Stem rot, 
too, will sometimes become troublesome on 
heavy soils. A mixture of powdered charcoal 
and lime placed at the necks of the plants will 
sometimes save them from it; but proper hill 
preparation and drainage are best. 
Watering and Later Care 
Avoid artificial watering as much as pos¬ 
sible. Do not spray the foliage, but when 
necessary apply an abun¬ 
dance of water at the 
roots. The best method 
^ is to allow the water 
to run slowly from a 
hose directly on the hill, 
placing a small board 
under the nozzle to pre¬ 
vent washing the soil. 
Early in July the 
young melons should be 
swelling rapidly, if the 
hills were properly pre¬ 
pared. If this is the 
case, no further feeding 
will be required, but 
otherwise feedings of 
liquid manure should be 
applied. This method 
( Continued ■ on page 70) 
