The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1907-01-22

by new names and offering them as new
varieties. Where cantaloupes are grown
for shipment the type or class known as
| Melted Gem or Rocky Fords are the
| best. For local or home use there are
many others that are as good and some
are considered better.
The oantaloupe is largely influenced by
weather conditions. Too much rain after
/ the fruits are set will injure the quality.
| This is one of the reasons why cantal-
oupes grown by irrigation are better in
/ quality generally than those grown in
sections where there is a heavy rainfall
during the growing season. Where grown
/ by irrigation the water supply can be
/ regulated, which we cannot do in rainy
/ sections, though in this, as in all other
! crops, the grower has TO take chances,
and when the season is favorable the
/ crop can be made very profitable one.
/ This crop will require but little rain
where the soil has been prepared as it
should be, and like the cucumber, only
/ shallow cultivation is needed for such
! soils
Spread Manure Broadcast.
! 1t is generally best to spread the man
! ure broadcast and have 1t incorporated
| in the soil before planting the seed. Field
mice are very fond of all vine seed and
! often become destructive, by digging out
/ the seed and eating them. They seem to
! prefer the seed Just as they are swollen
and begin to sprout. ! always keep one
] or more rat dogs at work around my
! place and in my fields and they usually
destroy the mice. But to be sure to get
all of them. I split open Hubbard squash
seed, slip in between the halves a small
quantity of strychnine and scatter the
seed around where no stock can get to
them. This should be done several days
before planting the cantaloupe seed.
go around every morning to see il the
squash seed have been eaten, and if so,
+ put oft more and continue putting them
out as long as there are mice to eat them,
! and / find after a few days there are no
mice left I follow this practice in plant.
/ ing all vine crops.
But the greatest enemies to the vine
/ crops generally are the striped cucumber
! bugs (see under cucumbers) and the vine
/ louise which gets on the under side of
i the leaf and soon sucks the life out of
the plants, This louise is sometimes called
/ by growers honey dew, as a mass of
] these insects resemble a grade of dirty
honey or honey dew. Against protection
from this insect we are practically help
less If they only fed on the top or out
or side Of the leaf we could easily de-
stroy them by spraying with a strong
solution or decoction of tobacco tea, but
we cannot reach them with the spray on
the under side of the leaf
The only practical remedy that I have
found so far is to work the soil down to
fine dust and sprinkle a mixture of air
Stacked line and slug shot and very finely
ground tobacco dust all over the vines
and over the soil under the vines. The
first rain that comes will spatter this
/ dust, as well as the fine EARTH all over
! the under side of the leaf and this will
destroy the lice at once. OF course. when
we have protracted spell of heavy rains
i which keep the soil wet for days, this
af rrNtr Ill .
during wet or dry weather alike. After
the soil becomes dry, the plants should
be roed, cultivated and another appli-
! cation of the dust made. BY keeping up
i this kind of fight. I have been able to
+ grow fine crops of melons that paid we'll
for the outlay. The mixture mentioned Is
a fine fertilizer for the vines as well as
one OF the best of insecticides I will
! state here that tobacco Is a very useful
/ plant as fertilizer and as an insecticide
i How strange, to see farmers whose fruit
i trees are dying from the effects of borers
! that could easily be destroyed by the use
tobacco dust, burning up, or chewing and
| splitting away so valuable a fertilizer
! and insecticide! 7 use great quantities
! of tobacco, as much perhaps as any man
| IN this country. but I use 1t In its legi-
/ innate way. Tobacco is one of our most
/ useful plants 1t is a medicinal plant, an
| insecticide and n fertilizer. I destroy
! thousands of insects that prey upon my
crops with tobacco dust and at the same
| time I am fertilizing the soil. stimulating
! the plants to stronger and quicker
/ growth and getting them out of the way
! of the insects. I can take tobacco tea
put little hog lard in 1t and with this
mixture cleanse every hog, calf, sheep
and colt on the farm I shall grow more
! tobacco the coming season than ever be-
| fore as I am planting more fruit trees
! than ever before.