The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1890-01-20

especially if you are going 20 raise good
melons.
Allow one vine only in hill, aud never
more than two melons on any one vine.
The average crop OF melons is l., TO the
vine or 600 good melons to the acre. About
what We average is one car load to 2J<
acres. Never cut off the vines but trim
off the imperfect melons. Let the vines
alone.
When your land is checked off apply the
fertilizer. ANY good homemade fertilizer
will DO. The rakings from the hog pens is.
perhaps, the very best for the average soil.
and cotton seed that is rotten makes a fine
fertilizer. OF commercial fertilizers, l
would take kainit, German kainit. acid
phosphate and cotton seed meal, and mix in
equal parts by weight, and then you have
got for the melon complete fertilizer.
Then If you have vegetable mould enough
in your land you will make a fine crop of
melons. Apply just as much fertilizer to
the hill as you can afford. I have a wagon
driven between the two rows, and have two
boys on it with shovels. and whenever the
wagon passes across check they throw two
shovels full-one boy throwing this way
and the other that way. Distribute your
fertilizer well.
am going to tell you a fact about water
melon roots. They literally ill the earth.
They are confined to the immediate surface
They are exceedinly fine and tender. as
much so as the vine itself; and, in fact they
grow just as fast and as far in the ground
as the vine grows on the surface. They
keep up, and that is the reason the manure
ought to be well scattered over the whole
ground.
Iput about 200 pounds to the acre of
commercial fertilizer. When the vines be-
gin to run l take scooter and run each
side about p feet from the kill aud follow
and put in about 100 pounds more of fer
tilizer each way. which makes in all about
400 pounds to the acre. The delicate roots
of the melons found this fertilizer that had
been scattered about, and they never fired.
They won't fire if you will put in your fer
tilizer that way. Another thing, you should
never work watermelons when the ground
Is wet. Work them when small. with hoe,
and do this In the afternoon when the
ground is dry. Do not thin out the vines
until they have six leaves, then thin down
to two vines, and when they begin to run
then thin down to one i'll a hill. After they
| commence running, cultivate with q
sweep" and keep just ahead of the vines.
l never disturb the vines at all. In stiff
lands, of course the cultivation must be
different. The first time you plow the
melons run close around them with dia-
mond-pointed scooter" and then with q
turner. The melon vine will start, for 'it
do move" and it will go six inches day.
and you must keep just ahead of the vines
in your cultivation. If your melons get
too full, sweep them out, turning back to
the ends of the little fibrous roots the fresh
earth for them to go into This soft earth
| suits them, and they will grow about six
inches day, When L so to lay by my
melons, invariably run scooter furrow
and sprinkle few peas. and when the
peas are up about five inches, they don't
hurt anything. They serve as a sort of
trellis and the watermelon vines tie to them,
and they also shade the little melons.
Keep ahead of the vines with steel
| turner; then all you have to do is to watch
and keep the imperfect ones cut off
About two melons to vine is all you ought
| to allow.
The seed nearest the heart of the first
good melons you pull is the best, that is if
you wish the seed for your own use !
will also tell you | save a great many
seeds. have got carpenters work
bench, and have watermelon feasts around
this bench. When this is known, not only
my colored folks but all the neghboring
negroes around come to these feasts
have got an old saw, and with the blade of
that old saw the melons are cut up, and
then the negroes go In, and all the price
they pay for the feast is to save the seed.
Now this seed SO saved, | want you to I'M
derstand is the seed | sell. But if you
want the seed for your own nse, will say
to you that my wife takes care of the seeds
want to keep. The seeds she preserves are
always marked private"
In cultivatlng our melons we can cult
vate our light lands, say twenty acres in
corn and twenty acres in melons, twenty
acres in corn and twenty acres in cotton at
about the same cost, therefore, if melons
can be sold at $50, or even at S 40, a car load
it is great deal better business than cotton
growing.
There are little green bugs that attack
the vines, but if you WILL when you plant
the watermelon seed. also plant some radish
seed the little bugs will eat the radishes and
let the waterme Ions alone. ST. aa
We plant the last of February In about
ten days we replant if necessary. If you
are planting for the market this is best,
but if you are planting for your own use
YOU are not in so much of hurry.
An Acre in Potatoes That Paid the
Grower $1,000 AZ.