The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-03-05
NOTES on the Watermelon.

From bulletin of the North Carolina
Experiment Station we extract the follow
ing: The watermelon, though such
Juicy succulent berry" prefers not to
have too much juice in the land, and pre-
fsrs to distil its sweet nectar out of the
driest Of sandy soils. At the same time
it likes to have a chance to send its roots
down into q moist and mellow bottom,
and we always succeed better in growing
them on sandy bottoms than on upland.
No doubt many fine ones are grown on
the sandy, piney uplands, but when a
choice OF soils can be had we would pre-
fer mellow bottom land and a deep soil.
Most people devote too little attention to
the preparation of the soil for water
melons We have found that it pays to
pow the melon land as shallow as posi-
bic and as early in the spring as IL can be
we'll worked. Then as weeds appear cul-
tiyate it all over and destroy them, and
do not turn up fresh crop of weeds from
below As time for planting approaches
check out the land ten feet each way and
clean out the crossings in a broad hole.
Now, previous TO this time a good pile of
c0mpOsted manure should be provided by
mixing well rOtted COW, sheep or hog
manure thoroughly with three times its
bulk of mellow, black mould from the
"
ing better than the 5Weepings of a paved
street But few can have this. Have
plenty of the compost, and 90 nor stop at
a shovel full, but put two or more in
the hole Make the hill broad and fat
and not more than level with the surface
of the surrounding soil. In planting
scatter a handful of some high grade am
m0nated fertilizer over the surface of the
compost in a hill cover IT lightly with
soil, and then mark two lines at right
angles with each other on the surface
dividing the surface of the hill into four
quarters. Now ant plenty of seed as
early as you dare IN one Of these quarters
and week later plant another quarter
and so on. The idea is to get a perfect
stand as early as possible. If the first
planting gives a stand all right, all the
resi- can be pulled out But this practice
VIII save you from waiting and losing
time, and will insure a good stand in the
end.
When a stand is assured, thin out to
vine or two to each hill. We would re
peat that we would prefer the hills not
TO be hills at all, but either level or a lit
tie below he level, so that soil can be
worked up well arc md the plants. The
early culdVa ion should be rapid, as the
ylaes VIII soon prevent clean culture
Some nip the ends of the vines when
%uo4J -ufee IeeJ IOng-OuJ we doubt the
advantage of the practice. The water
melon and all other melons are what bot
ansts call monUciOus plants That is.
they bear male and female blossoms on
the same plant. The male blossoms
are the snowy yellow ones, which have
no organs but the pollen-making sta
mems. The female flowers which have
the pIstil and the ovary (the future fruit
attached are not so conspicuous. The
bees and other insects visiting the flow
ers carry the pollen of the male blossoms
70 the pistll of the female flower and set
the fruit, 30 we see that while the bright
yellow flowers make no fruit, it is of the
greatest Importance that there should be
plenty Of them
Ii the striped beetles attack the young
melon plants the best remedy is nand-
I4.ot raw bone meal busted over the
pants. This not only drives away the
p-gs bat encourages the plant.