206 QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. [1 Avea., 1901. 
It is generally conceded that commercial fertilisers are better than other 
manures for melons. <A. fertiliser composed of the following ingredients may, 
therefore, be employed :—Nitrogen, 3 per cent.; available phosphoric acid, 8 
per cent.; and potash, 8 per cent. 
A few weeks before planting time construct flat hills sufficiently high to 
ieee damage to the plants in case of wet weather. Then apply to each 
ill from 1 Ib. to 13 1b. of the above fertiliser ; scatter it over a space 4 feet to 
5 feet across and mix well with the soil. 
Any time towards the middle of summer the hills may be properly 
loosened up and the melon seed planted. 
In lieu of the above fertiliser the following ingredients may be procured 
and compounded. ‘The’ quantities given are necessary to make 100 Ib., but any 
other quantity can be prepared: Nitrate of soda, 11 1b.; acid phosphate, 
46 Ib.; kainit, 43 lb. Apply from 1 Ib. to 13 Ib. to a hill, the same as aboye. 
Tn lieu of kainit, muriate or sulphate of potash may be employed. To make 
100 lb. with either one of said elements substituted for the kainit, the following 
quantities will be required: Nitrate of soda, 16 lb.; acid phosphate, 67 lb. ; 
muriate or sulphate of potash, 17 1b. One hundred Pe of this grade is 
equivalent to nearly 147 lb. of either of the above, and the application should 
be regulated accordingly. 
The cultivation should be thorough without disturbing the vines to any 
sreat extent with a plough after they commence running. ‘The crust on the 
hills and beneath the vines should be broken after every. rain with a long, 
narrow, light blade constructed for the purpose, taking proper care not to 
injure the vines. The grass and weeds can thus easily be kept in subjection 
until the first crop of melons gets half grown. 
The above plan is, of course, practical for medium and late melons only. 
Tn the same way pumpkins can be planted and cultivated jointly with corn 
to great advantage. By giving the corn a few weeks’ start the necessary culti- 
vation will not injure the vines. 
ORANGE CULTURE IN PALESTINE. 
It is pointed out in a consular report on the trade of Palestine last year 
that the orange gardens at Jaffa are irrigated by a water-wheel lifting a double 
row of buckets, and this wheel was formerly turned by from three to five 
mules, whose keep averaged about £12 per annum. But the stimulus given 
increased cultivation and the planting of gardens from 10 to 80 acres in | 
size have necessitated the consumption of a very much larger quantity of 
water for their irrigation. Since 1898 about sixty oil’ engines have been 
employed in the larger plantations, two-thirds of which are of German 
manutacture and the rest British make. 
THE STRAWBERRY CROP AT CLEVELAND. 
At a meeting of strawberry-growers in the Cleveland and Wellington 
Point districts last week, it was stated that the coming strawberry crop in those 
two localities will reach 30 tons. Some have already made arrangements for 
the sale of their crop to the jam factories at 34d. per lb., an advance of 3d. 
per lb. on the price given by the factories last year. 
