Evening star., 1914-08-22

some one Wiling 10 pay me ABOUT 20
cents apiece for them. 1t would be
great pleasure to sell such cantaloupes, if
could sell them at profit. l don't
think l could be rich enough to get any
fun out of selling them at loss.
Cantaloupes Puzzle.
This cantaloupe game has me guess
ing for fair. Truckers who grow many
acres of them at profit, selling them
at times for as little as a cent apiece.
must have some secret of success not
possessed either by home gardeners
or by the men who write stories for
agree that cantaloupes are about the
hardest crop there is to bring through
successfully, and / know that has been
my experience this year. They have
than about anything else that grows,
and these enemies in relays. are on
the job night and day from the time
the first leaf bursts through the
ground until the last melon has been
picked. With all other crops l know
when they can be laid away with
nothing remaining to be done but
gather the harvest. Not SO with can
taloupes. About the time you think
aphids take a new start. or blight
sets in. or your vines begin to wither
and die from no apparent cause
To plant an acre of cantaloupes as
1 planted mine. preparing, the hills
with the same care, would certainly
cost not less than 800 for labor alone:
But that was only a beginning. 1
have done more wedding and cultlvat.
ing and watering almost than in all
the rest of the garden put together. I
started spraying week after the
seeds sprouted and I'm at it yet. First
/ had to spray with arsenate of lead
to kill the striped beetle. Then !
sprayed with bordeaux mixture to pre-
a mixture of fish oil. soap and tobacco
to kill the green aphids.
And this is about the hardest job OF
spraying l ever tackled. As the aphids
are Juice suckers instead of leaf eat
ers they can't be killed with poison,
like any self-respecting parasite. They
do their sucking from under the side
of the leaf. When a thousand or mil
lion or so of them have feasted Tor an
hour or two on a hill of cantaloupes all
the leaves begin to curl down at the
elges, making spraying about num-
dred times more difficult.
No Race Suicide There.
Unless the spraying is done thoroughly
it might almost as well not be done at
all. Let a single leaf with its colony of
aphids escape the drenching with soap
and tobacco and in a fortnight their pro-
geny will be legion. I have sprayed my
patch time and again. turning back the
vines and Strengthening out curled leaves.
and yet the aphids have multiplied SO
rapidly that some hills have had to cut
out entirely and burn the vines. The
thing that puzzles me is how market
gardeners keep down the aphids and
other pests and are still able to sell can
taloupes at a price within reach or any
one but millionaires.
have put in lot Of work on tomatoes,
too. but with them my enjoyment OF the
fine fruit is enhanced by belief that the
method l followed is commercially prac-
teal Tomatoes have no enemies to
speak of. and the extra work involved
in stalking and pruning them is more
than Offset by the size and quality OF the
fruit and the fact that none rots on the
ground. The other day l picked three
tomatoes growing in one cluster, sound
and perfect specimens, and the three
weighed trifle over four pounds ! don't
mind admitting that l was as proud as
Jim was with his seven silver dollars.
I took the tomatoes to the Office. placed
them on exhibition and invited every one
from the assistant secretary to the negro
messenger to come in and admire them.
Some of the boys wanted me to send
them to the White House. but my nerve
wasn't equal to that Instead. gave
them to viii Turner. The Turner's are
among our best friends. but that wasn't
wholly the reason why singled him out
for the prize tomatoes. Before we moved
to the country Will offered to bet that
would carry most of our vegetables out
from town. The temptation to hand
him one" was more than I could resist
Looking for Country Place.
| 1t was hardly fair, though, to rub
! it in on Will, for he had long since
| recanted his slurs on going back to the
soil. Will and his wife have visited
us several times. each time becoming
more convinced that the life is ration
al one. and I know that right now they
| have an agent looking for place in
the, country they can get early next
| spring.
| This is a point upon which I am
going to give Turner some advice. out
of the fullness of my wisdom. Spring
is the wrong time for a man. without