Mountain Home maverick. [volume] (Mountain Home, Idaho) 1906-1911, 1911-04-06
Agricultural Department
Pace Devoted to Topics of the Farm Orchard
nd

hoe. law the seeds in gently and
cover carefully.
1--WE never make two paintings.
OF course if there is any great dan
ger Of frost. it is a good plan to make
another planting 10 days later but
we never plant at all until danger
of frost is over. and then we plant
all the patch at once, as the big mon
ey is made the first few weeks of
picking.
If the seeds have terminated we'll
and shown a high percentage of fer
tility. it is sufficient to plant Z or s
seeds to the hill We always have a
complete stand with these number
of seeds and never replant. Our
ranch last year we only counted four
hills missing
"The land should be well irrigat-
ed for ~ or "a hours before. plant
ing begins, and the hills may
placed five or SIX feet apart and the
bitches for irrigation about the same
distance away We place the seed
in the ground at a point from the
ditch which is about at the dark
edge which marks the scepage Of
water from the ditch in irrigating
BY digging down there a little, the
ground is found to be just nicely
moist. We plant about an inch in
depth, and keep cultivating the patch
well. But the roots are not strong,
and one should be careful not to
disturb them in cultivation. A sin
gle horse cultivator with shovel
tooth is the best, and a hoe, when
use close to the plants.
1T will not be necessary to ir-
rigate again until the plants are al
most ready to run. We always de-
fer irrigation as long as possible in
the spring Irrigate until the dark
line of seepage has reached almost
but not quite to the plant After
ter the second irrigation we find it
necessary to turn the water on about
every 10 days, though time is not
the deciding factor, but rather the
condition of moisture in the soil.
When the patch is fruiting, we al
ways give the crop water very Of
ten. but not much at time Most
people give the plants too much wa
ter when they are bearing fruit.
The opposite is the best method In
cool weather. when the plants are
growing slowly, people seem to get
the idea that they need water. They
don't. 1t is the nature of the plant
to grow gradually, and to be retard-
ed by cold weather
"Our first melons are ready to
pick about July 25th. The second
setting Of fruit is sometimes almost
as profitable as the first.
Last year we were bothereh with
blight on the second setting 1t was
the first time that blight had ever
affected the plant after blossomine
when the leaves get yellow, and
shrivel up. and the plant drops tC
the ground dead. This is known tC
be caused by the application of toe
much water. but if we did not ap
ply too much water last year, we dc
not know what the cause was.
1--WE think that any man whf
grows cantaloupes as we do should
have just as good results. However
we do not look for as good price
for melons in the future as we hav'
had in the past. There are man,
ranchers going into the work ant
the Japanses in this session are pre-
pairing to plant heavily this season
The outlook is not at all discourae
ing. but we feel that there is NOR
= likelihood of there being less none
in the crop in the future than ther
/ has been in the past.-Irrigator