The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1883-05-31
Jersey MuskmeIOns.

The culture of the crop requires some
skill. Sod ground is deemest the best
for it. as the vines never ''go down" on
sod. Rye stubble is the next choice,
and is the usual ground chosen, chiefly
from necessity, for Jersey farmers do
not have much sod. TIE ground IS
we'll plowed and narrowed, a liberal
quantity of CITY manure being spread
and plowed in. Some farmers will
spend three hundred dollars an acre on
manure for this crop. Others plant on
ground MANFRED the previous year, and
put manure, a compost of night soil and
fine stable manure and poultry drop
pings, in the hill, and even then use
spoonful of guanO or superphosphate in
the hill to start the vines The ground
is marked out six or seven feet apart
each way and hill made at each in
tersection. 1t is a popularity of Jer-
sey farmer that he measures his crops
by the number of hills of melons, rows
of potatoes, the quantity CT seed sOwn,
or by so many panels of fence, but
rarely by the acre. An acre is an I'M
known quantity to him.. Il have seven
thousand hills of melons, one will say.
" But how much grOund?' oh, L
don't know; fifty panels of fence.
That would be something less than six
acres, which is rather more than an or
dinary-sized melon patch. Fs-
1t is a great point to get the seed in
early, to escape the rOtting of the seed,
and the frost Nearly every year the
first planting is cut down more or less,
but if it escapes in some sheltered spot,
the grower nets a handsome profit. Last
year the May frosts cut the melons very
badly, but one grower, who escaped,
marketed three hundred barrels at five
dollars a barrel before a second grower
had a barrel ready, when the price
dropped in "A day to three dollars. Dur
ing the war melons sold all through the
season at an average of five dollars a
barrel, and a neighbor cleared two
thousand seven hundred dollars from
his crop of about two acres. The aver
age now will be about one dollar and a
half a barrel, thirty melons to a barrel,
and about four hundred and fifty dollars
per acre.
The crop is subject to several risks.
After danger from frost is over, lice
| (mealy bugs will cover the plants here
and there, and if the hill is not pulled
up and burned, the vermin will spread
over a large number from each center,
killing the plants. Then the vines will
800 down. from some cause not gener-
ally known to growers, but which is due
to the injury done to the root by the
/ striped beetle, which preys upon the
1 squash and cucumber as well as the
| melon. The beetle Injuries the stem be-
/ low the ground, and the Larvae attack
| the roots, and then the plant willis sud
! denly, the leaves drOop and there is no
recovery or cure. I have found that a
! little air-slacked lime put close up to
the stem when'the plants are small pre-
vents this; perhaps the beetle can not
crawl down through the pungent lime
to lay its eggs. The cultivation con-
sists in hoeing about the plants when
they are small, and working between
the rows with the cultivator. AS the
! vines spread, they are moved and lifted,
and the ground under them is hOed, I'M
til they cover the surface, when no
more work is done.
When the melons begin to net, the
/ grower feels jubilant and free from care,
! especially if no neighbOr is yet ahead OF
him. They then rapidly mature under
the hot sun, and when the pressure OF
the thumb causes the center, where the
sections meet, to give way little, OF
the stem parts easily, the crop is ready
to begin gathering for market. The sea
| son lasts until the frost cuts the vines,
or the crops are exhausted, but geneT-
| ally there are melons to be marketed
4 until the weather is too cool to ripeL
them, when they are flavOrless and wa
terry, and the COWS enjoy the reversion
airy interest, and pay well for then
share in milk.-JerSey FGTH7er,iH CoU9a.
tg'Y Gentleman.