204 | [AssEMBLY 
It appears that the Extra Early Citron was earliest, giving its first 
ripe fruit in ninety-five days. Three other varieties, viz., Long 
Yellow, Large Boston Nutmeg and Jenny Lind ripened one or 
more fruits in less than one hundred days. 
The water melon seems less suited to our soil than the musk 
melon. The earliest to ripen a fruit was the ‘Siekon,” a variety 
of which the seeds were received from Messrs. Vilmorin, Andrieux 
& Co. of Paris. 
Synonyms. 
The musk melons planted under the names “Jenny Lind” (Sib. 
1883) and “Jenny Lind Citron” (Lan.), were evidently the same 
variety ; also those planted as “ Surprise” (Sib. 1883) and “ New 
Surprise” ( ? 1882). The Chicago Nutmeg and Prolific Nutmeg 
had a very striking resemblance, as did also the Early Nutmeg and 
Boston Large Nutmeg. Our evidence, however, is not as yet sufii- 
cient to warrant us in pronouncing these as synonyms. 
Experiments in Pinching back Melon Vines. 
It has frequently been stated that the earliness and productiveness __ 
of melons is promoted by pinching off the ends of the stems soon 
after they commence to run. It is claimed that the pinching back 
stimulates the growth of branches on which the female flowers are 
chiefly borne. 
With the view of attesting the truth of these statements, we 
selected two rows of Christiana melons, each seventy-five feet long. 
In one of these rows, commencing July 18, we pinched-off the end 
of every runner as soon as it had attained the length of one and a 
half to two feet. In the other row we permitted the runners to 
grow to their full length. The results showed that pinching the 
stems much increased the number of branches, and hence of the 
female flowers. We noted that female flowers very rarely appear 
on the main stem, and on the other hand, the first flower on a 
branch is almost invariably female. The second flower on the 
branch is sometimes male and sometimes female. Beyond the 
second, the flowers are, as on the main stem, almost always male. 
On August 5, we counted the flowers on fifty main stems and found 
but four female to 312 male flowers. 
Our first impressions were that the fruits formed on the pinched 
row were more numerous and earlier than on the unpinched row. 
On August 15, however, we counted on the pinched row ninety- 
seven fruits exceeding three inches in diameter, while on the un- 
pinched row we counted eighty-five of the same size, thus showing 
that the difference in the two rows was very slight. ’ 
The first fruit ripened on the unpinched row August 26, one day 
earlier than that on the pinched row. No perceptible difference 
appeared at this time in the productiveness of the two rows. 
