Melon culture; a practical treatise on the principles involved in the production of melons, both for home use and for market: including a chapter on forcing and one on insects and diseases and means of controlling the same

Front matter

Class SB 5^3

Book 01^^

Copyiight W!

Preface

Melon growing has come to be an industry of vast proportions in this country, few people having any adequate conception of the extent of the industry. There is scarcely a state in the Union in which the melon does not play a more or less conspicuous part in its vegetable productions. Even Canada, which is generally considered as being too far north for melon growing, produces some surprisingly fine melons, especially in the eastern portion, where they are grown quite extensively under frames. The United States is, however, the principal field for outdoor melon culture, and it is to this section mostly that the following pages are intended to apply.

The results of the census of 1910 are not yet available, but, basing our calculations on the report of the Census Bureau of 1900, and making a fair allowance for increase in acreage and production during the last decade, we now have in the United States in round numbers 290,000 acres devoted to melon growing. This is divided between the muskmelon and the watermelon in the proportion of about one to three. The yearly production, according to these estimates, would be about 175,000,000 muskmelons and 225,000,000 watermelons, or more than four melons to each person in the United States. We see, therefore, that this is no mere market garden crop, but that it covers vast areas. Commercially speaking, therefore, it may be classed among the farm crops of the present day.

VI PREFACE

Twent3^-five years ago this industry was confined to a few southern states and near the large cities of the East. The number of varieties was also limited. Peter Henderson in his " Gardening for Profit," published in 1891, mentions only six varieties of muskmelons and ten varieties of watermelons in general cultivation ; that number has since increased many times over. Alethods of cultivation and handling the crop have improved wonderfully, and while the yield per acre is perhaps no greater yet the crop is produced much more easily and with less expense than formerly. Insects and diseases have become more troublesome, but they are also better known, and, with possibly one or two exceptions, are more easily controlled.

It has been the aim of the writer in the following pages to give the latest information concerning the needs of this crop, as to soil and climate, and directions for planting and cultivation which will apply to the small grower for home use as well as to the large commercial grower. The principal species of insects and diseases are also described and remedies recommended so far as any are known. A list of the more common varieties is also given.

The illustrations are, for the most part, from photographs taken in the melon fields or from individual specimens or crates. The greater portion of them were taken by my colleagues, J. G. Boyle and C. G. Woodbury, .and some of them have been used in bulletins published by the Indiana Experiment Station. Figs. 14 and 21 are from photos furnished by D. V. Burrell of Rocky Ford, Colorado.

CHAPTER I Page

History and Botany of the Melon . i-8

Early history of the musk'melon and watermelon — Botany of each — Botanical varieties — Structure and pollination of flowers.

CHAPTER n

Conditions Affecting Growth . . 9-13

Climatic conditions — Soil conditions — Tile drainage — The function of root hairs.

CHAPTER HI

Best soils for muskmelons — Best soils for watermelons.

CHAPTER IV

Conditions affecting the vitality of seeds, temperature, moisture, age, etc — Testing seeds ; methods employed — Selecting seeds; its influence on the crop — Seeds from immature fruit — Early vs. late ripening fruits for seeds — Effect of latitude and altitude on early maturity.

CHAPTER V

Fertilizers for Melons .... 30-34 Kind and quantity for different kinds of soils.

Vlll CONTENTS

CHAPTER VI

Page

Starting the Plants .... 35-40 Planting in the open ground — Time to plant — Use plenty of seed — Starting in hotbed — Planting in plant boxes or on sods — Watering — Temperature — Starting in hothouses.

CHAPTER VH

Transplanting — Plants required for an acre — Distance apart for the hills ; for muskmelons ; for watermelons — Cultivation : deep vs. shallow — Navy beans as anchors for the vines.

CHAPTER Vni

Harvesting and Marketing Melons . 46-60 Proper stage of ripening for harvesting in order to preserve quality — Protecting the melons after picking — Packing as it is usually done ; as it should be done — Style of package used — Shipping in bulk — Marking the package with grower's name and address — Marketing — Conditions affecting the profits — Number of watermelons required to fill a car — Extent of the melon business.

CHAPTER IX

Forcing Melons 61-67

Some of the necessary requirements foi forcing melons — The forcing house — The soil for the house: how made — Watering: sub vs. surface irrigation — Planting the

CONTENTS IX

Page seeds — Time for early and late crop — Training to strings or wires — Fertilizing the blossoms — Market — Varieties — Insects ' — Diseases.

CHAPTER X

The common forms, with remedies — Mice and gophers or ground squirrels — Fungous and bacterial diseases of melons — Disease-resistant plants.

CHAPTER XI

A description of fifty-five varieties of muskmelons grown out-of-doors and nine foreign varieties — A list of good forcing varieties grown in this country — A description of forty-six varieties of watermelons.

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Figure _ ^ Page

A fine field of muskmelons — Frontispiece.

Muskmelon vine, showing female blossom at a, and male blossom at b. .3

Section of watermelon field in the Ohio

valley which yielded $150 per acre. 16

Seed-testing box filled with corn after the

melon seeds had germinated . . 21

A poor Netted Gem, the result of haphazard selection of seed melons . . 23

5. A much better type than Fig. 4 . .24

6. A bunch of well-grown Rattlesnakes . . 32

Hotbeds where the melon seeds are started 38

This is easier than watering by hand . 3Q

Hauling the plants to the field for transplanting 43

A thoroughbred Rocky Ford . . -47

Harvesting cantaloupes and hauling them

to market . . . . . -49

A typical packing shed . . . -So

Some different styles of packages . . 54

A fine bunch of Burrell Gems ; note the

uniformity of size, shape and netting 56

A handy screen for fencing out the striped

A field of Tip Tops nearly ruined by the

bacterial wilt . . . . .80

TI

13 14 xn LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Figure Page

17. A field of melons destroyed by the rust . 84

18. The rust may be held in check by spray-

ing with the bordeaux mixture . . 85

19. A rust-resistant Rocky Ford; note the fine

20. A well-sprayed melon vine . . . .88

21. The Rocky Ford is a favorite variety with

most growers 90

22. A trio of Tip Tops from the Ohio valley . 91

CHAPTER I HISTORY AND BOTANY OF THE MELON

Both the muskmelon and the watermelon are natives of tropical countries, where the muskmelan, in particular, has been cultivated from the earliest period of which we have any record. The muskmelon is a native of southern Asia, where it was known to and cultivated by the Israelites before the time of Moses. During their travels through the wilderness, where they were fed by the manna from heaven, they became impatient and said to Moses, " We remember the fish, which we did eat freely, the cucumbers, and the melons." And Isaiah, in speaking of the desolation of Judah, says, " The daughter of Zion is left as a cottage in the vineyard, as a lodge in the garden of cucumbers."

It would seem from the foregoing that the cucumber and the melon were cultivated together then as now. Some writers,' however, think that the cucumbers mentioned were really melons, although both are mentioned. . It is very probable that in those early times the names were used interchangeably, inasmuch as the two are so closely related. From Asia the muskmelon was introduced into Europe at about the beginning of the Christian era. At about the same time the watermelon was brought into Europe from the southern or central portion of Africa, its native habitat, from whence it has kept pace with the muskmelon in its journeys into all of the tropical and semitropical countries of the civilized world.

Melons have been grown in the United States from its early history, but until comparatively recent times their culture was confined to the eastern and southeastern states along the southern coast. In some of the writings of the early part of the 'last century mention is made^ of a number of varieties having been, shown at the exhibition of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society; and in 1851 the same author speaks of the Christiana melon as having been raised by Captain Josiah Lovett from a green Malta melon impregnated with a very early variety, and it was believed that it had not been equaled. In order to show their appreciation of its merits, the society awarded Captain Lovett a piece of plate of the value of $50. A little later, melons weighing from 40 to 50 pounds were exhibited, and the quality was all that could be desired. Within the last 50 years the cultivation and improvement of the melon has steadily increased, and the number of varieties which are suited to different soils and climates has gradually grown, until the United States is acknowledged to be the largest melon-growing country in the world.

Botany. — The muskmelon and the watermelon both belong to the natural order CucurhitacecE, from the Latin, Cucurbita, meaning a gourd. This order^ contains plants that are mostly tendril-bearing herbs, with succulent but not fleshy herbage, watery juice, alternate palmately ribbed and mostly lobed or angled leaves, monoecious or sometimes dioecious flowers ; monoecious, when flowers of both sexes are borne upon the same plant but only one

^ "History of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society." " Gray's "Botany."

HISTORY AND BOTANY OF THE MELON 3

sex ill the same flower; dioecious, when the two sexes are borne on different plants, as is the case with the poplars, willows, etc., in which case one plant is fertile and the other is sterile, although both are necessary to the production of fruit.

In the melons, the flowers are usually monoecious, the calyx coherent with the ovary, corolla more commonly monopetalous — united into one — and stamens usually three, of which one has a onecelled, the others two-celled anthers, but the an-

Fig. 1. Muskmelon vine showing female blossom at a, and male blossom at b.

thers are commonly tortuous, twisted and often all combined in a head and the filaments sometimes all united in a tube or column. In the muskmelon, the sterile or male flowers are borne in clusters with short stems, the fertile ones are solitary and mostly on short stems in the axil of the leaves. (See Fig. I.) In the watermelon the two kinds of flowers are solitary in the axil of the leaves.

The muskmelon belongs to the genus Cucumis, to which belongs the cultivated cucumber of our gardens, and Linnaeus gave it the specific name Melo. Cucumis melo is therefore its botanical name. Its leaves differ somewhat from those of the watermelon in that they are roundish, heart-shaped or kidney-shaped, the lobes being- rounded, while those of the watermelon are deeply three to five-lobed, and the divisions again lobed or sinuate pinnatifid, pale or bluish. The fruit is of varying size, with a more or less hard rind and sweet flesh, the edible part being the inner portion of the pericarp, the thin and watery placentae being discarded with the seeds.

There are a number of more or less distinct botanical varieties, which are classified according to the shape, size and character of the fruits, some of which are cultivated more for ornament or as curiosities than for domestic use. The first two of these varieties mentioned below include the greater portion of our commonly cultivated muskmelons, and formerly served to separate them into two groups ; viz., cantaloupes and nutmegs, but these names are now often misapplied by the general public, and the two groups have become so confused that it is now scarcely possible to separate them ; in fact, the strictly pure cantaloupe is not grown much in this country. Our cultivated varieties, which commonly go by the name of cantaloupes, are really nutmegs ; but if one wishes to be perfectly proper in speaking of them, he should call them all muskmelons, and let that suffice.

BOTANICAL VARIETIES

Variety Cantalonpcnsis is the cantaloupe. The fruits are usually hard-rined, more or less roughened or warty and often with deep furrows running

HISTORY AND BOTANY OF THE MELON 5

lengthwise. The name is derived from Cantalupo, near Rome, a former country seat of the Pope, whither this type of melon was brought from Armenia.^ In this country, as stated above, the name cantaloupe is often applied to muskmelons in general, no distinction being made between varieties, whereas it should only be used in connection with those having a hard, scaly rind.

Variety Reticulatus includes the nutmeg or netted melons. Here the rind is more or less soft, netted or sometimes smooth. The Emerald Gem is a good example.

Variety Flexuosus is the so-called Snake Melon or Snake Cucumber. The fruits are long and slender, variously curved, nearly green when ripe, sometimes two and one-half to three feet in length and about three inches in diameter. It is sometimes used by the housewife in making preserves.

Variety Chito goes by various names : Orange Melon, Mango Melon, Melon Apple, Garden Lemon, Vegetable Orange, etc. It is smaller and more delicate in vin6 than the common muskmelon and, as the name indicates, the fruits are much the shape and size of an orange, yellow in color, without markings, and without the characteristic melon odor. They are used only in making preserves.

Variety Inodorous includes the winter melons. The leaves are lighter in color and less hairy than the ordinary melon. The fruit is mainly noted for its keeping qualities, as with proper attention it may be kept well into winter. This variety is not very well known in the United States, where there are so many superior varieties, and so its culture is ^ "Encyclopedia of Horticulture."

limited, for the most part, to the countries bordering on the Mediterranean Sea.

The Watermelon belongs to the genus Citrnllits, the name coming from the Latin word Citrus, meaning an orange or citron. Its specific name is vulgaris, signifying the common melon ; hence, Citrullns vulgaris is its botanical name. The edible pulp of the fruit, in which the dark seeds are imbedded, consists of the large and juicy placentae, which are usually reddish in color. The so-called citron of the garden is a variety of the above species with a hard and firm flesh, which is used for making preserves.

Fertilization of the Flowers. — By referring again to the description of the flowers, it will be seen that plants belonging to either of these groups must depend upon some outside agency for pollination, as the pollen must necessarily be carried some distance before it can come in contact with the pistil. In nature this is amply provided for by bees and other insects, which visit the flowers for the purpose <3f gathering the nectar or pollen, and also by the wind, which carries the pollen for a considerable distance and deposits it upon the pistils. It is not a good plan, however, to depend upon the wind entirely for pollination, as experiments have proven that in many instances where the insects were excluded from the blossoms, no fertilization took place and the crop was a failure, although the wind had free access to the flowers. It is a good plan, therefore, for the melon grower to combine bee keeping with his melon growing, as this will nearly always insure a good stand of fruit.

It sometimes happens that just as the blossoms are beginning to appear and are nearly ready for

HISTORY AND BOTANY OF THE MELON 7

the pollen there comes a time of long-continued rainy weather, which prevents the bees from working or the wind from blowing the pollen. This may result in the crop being later than usual, or it may cause a break in the continuity of ripening later on. As a general thjng, however, a rain which lasts only a day or two will have but little or no effect upon the fertilization of the flowers, because nature has provided for just such emergencies, and so if the pollen is not there when the pistil- is ready to receive it, it simply waits for a reasonable length of time until it can be served. This can be shown very nicely by observing the common, cultivated carnation as grown in the greenhouse. If pollen be applied to the pistil as soon as it is ready for it, the blossom will wither and dry up within two days ; whereas, if the pollen is withheld, it will remain open for two weeks, simply waiting for nature to perform her duty.

Forcing melons, or those which are grown in the greenhouse or forcing houses, must be hand pollinized, as there are no insects and very little wind to distribute the pollen. Hand pollination is easily performed by simply taking a piece of clean glass and holding it under the mature male flowers. Then, by gently tapping the flower with a stick or lead pencil, the pollen will be jarred off on to the glass. It will require several flowers to produce sufficient pollen to make the work easy and absolutely certain. Then, with a small camel's-hair brush, brush the pollen into a little heap and dip the end of the pistil into it. If the pistils are ready to receive it, one application will be sufficient, but in order to be absolutely certain, another application may be made the next day.

As said before, however, the pistils will remain in a receptive condition for some time if necessary. This fact makes it very convenient for the experimenter who wishes to cross-fertilize varieties of melons, for all that is necessary is for him to select his female blossoms, or buds, and cover them, just before they open, with paper sacks, leaving them on until the blossoms are fully open in order to prevent them from becoming pollinized from an unknown source. Now get the pollen in the manner indicated from the variety you wish to use as the male parent, slip off the cover and apply it to the waiting pistil and replace the covering, leaving it there until you are sure that fertilization has taken place. This is the method employed by the experimenter when he wishes to produce new varieties by using parents of certain definite known characteristics.

Another method of applying the pollen, which is preferred by some, is to take a camel's-hair brush and moisten it with the breath, then brush it over the mature stamens of the male blossom, when enough of the pollen will adhere to it to supply the pistils as it is applied to them. Others have good success by simply pinching off the mature male flowers and after removing most of the corolla, applying the stamens to the pistils. There are various methods of performing the operation, but the results are the same.

Chapter II Conditions Affecting Growth

Climatic Conditions. — As stated in the previous chapter, the melon is strictly a warm-weather plant, both the muskmelon and the watermelon coming from tropical or subtropical countries. Like manyother warm-weather plants, however, they have gradually worked their way northward, until they are now both freely grown in many parts of the north temperate zone. Neither of the species have, however, reached the point in hardiness where they will stand a temperature which even approaches the freezing point.

It is useless, therefore, to attempt to grow melons in outdoor culture by planting them before all danger of frost is over and the minimum temperature of the air has reachel 60° or higher. As will be seen farther on, some time may be gained by starting the seeds in a hotbed or greenhouse, and transplanting to the open ground later on, but even this must not be done until the atmosphere has become thoroughly warmed up. This will be indicated in different sections of the country by the time when Indian corn is usually planted.

Soil Conditions. — If the seeds of almost any of our upland plants are planted in soil which is cold, or which has not been properly drained, they will either rot or remain in the soil in a dormant condition until it has reached the proper temperature. This is especially true with such plants as those now under consideration. So it is generally a waste of time and material to plant the seeds before the soil is ready to receive them.

It is a custom with many farmers, especially in the corn belt of the middle West, to begin planting their corn at a certain day of a certain month, regardless of the fact that the season may be ten days or two weeks later some years than others. As a result, the farmer is often obliged to replant .his corn on account, as he claims, of poor seed ; but by using the same kind of seed for the second planting, a good stand is generally secured, because, in the meantime, the temperature, both of the soil and air, has been raised to the point which the corn requires for germination and rapid growth. Melon seeds require fully as high soil temperature for germination as does corn ; in fact, they are much alike in this respect.

Tile Drainage Helps to Warm Up the Soil. — There are large areas of the better class of melon soils in the United States which do not need artificial drainage because both the soil and subsoil are of a porous nature and the water level is so far below the surface that it does not interfere with the warming-up process but rather accelerates it. In these soils the capillary action is almost perfect, and so it does not matter much how dry the season is, the roots of the plants will always find moisture close at hand. In many sections, however, where melons are grown, a clayey subsoil underlies the looser surface soil, and this has a tendency to hold the free water and to keep the surface cool.

Tile drainage under such conditions will assist very much in lowering the water level, and so allow-

CONDITIONS AFFECTING GROWTH II

ing' the excess moisture to escape and the warm air to penetrate to a greater depth. It must be remembered that oxygen is as necessary to the healthy growth of these plants as it is to the animal. The cells of the newly formed roots are filled with that life-giving principle called protoplasm, and they must have access to the oxygen of the air or they will soon die.

The late Prof. E. S. Goff^ illustrates this in this way : Take a quantity of water and boil it for a time, so as to expel the free oxygen and then cool it quickly. A portion of it is then placed in a glass and oil is poured over it, so as to prevent the reabsorption of air. Leave the remainder exposed to the air for some time until it has reached the normal condition. Now take cuttings from some freerooting plant, like the geranium or tomato, and insert one into each of the glasses. In the glass containing the oil over the top the cutting will soon die, because there is no free oxygen in the water, while the one in the other glass, which has been left exposed to the air, will soon send out its rootlets and continue to grow.

Or, take the same kinds of cuttings and place them in a soil where the free water is within six inches of the surface.- Make the cuttings long enough so that the lower ends will extend down into the free water. It will be found later on that the cuttings will have thrown out roots above the water level, but not from the ends which were in the soil which was saturated with moisture and consequently devoid of free oxygen. ^ "Principles of Plant Culture."

The Function of Root Hairs. — The absorption of plant food is accomplished by means of very fine root hairs, which may be seen very nicely on melon roots which have grown between folds of muslin or thick paper. These root hairs play a very important part in the growth and development of the plant, but they cannot perform their natural function in the absence of free air. This condition exists in soils that either contain an excess of moisture or that have been worked while they were in this condition, thereby causing them to bake.

The ideal soil for this class of plants, therefore, must contain enough plant food and water to fully supply the plants and yet be so porous that the air can circulate through it and come in contact with the roots. Each particle of such a soil is surrounded with a thin film of water, while between the particles are spaces connected with each other and filled with moist air that is in communication with the air above the soil. The root hairs apply themselves intimately to the wet surfaces of the soil particles, or extend themselves into cavities filled with saturated air, and are thus able to draw in the wellaerated soil water with its dissolved food constituents in sufficient quantities to restore the loss from transpiration and to distend the newly formed cells.

It must be remembered that the soil is Nature's great chemical laboratory, in which many changes are going on constantly; by decomposition, the countless million, of plants and animals are acted upon by myriads of bacteria, whereby nitric acid, which supplies the higher plants with their most useful food element — nitrogen — is formed. The carbonic acid which these plants took from the air

CONDITIONS AFFECTING GROWTH I3

during growth is also set free to slowly disintegrate the mineral elements, rendering these soluble and available as plant food. In winter the frost acts upon the hard, compact particles, separating them and making them permeable to air and unlocking new supplies of plant food that would otherwise be unavailable.

Our upland crops secure a large portion of their nitrogen, as well as other food constituents, from decaying animal and vegetable matter, and it is of very great importance for such plants as melons, which must complete their growth in a comparatively short period, that as much of this material be made immediately available as possible. The application of well-rotted barn manure or commercial fertilizers, which act quickly by giving up to the plant the necessary food elements in an available form, is, therefore, especially valuable.

Drainage is also essential in land that is inclined to be heavy or where the water table is too near the surface, because it serves to promote aeration by removing the surplus water and places the particles of soil in the proper relation to moisture for the reception of the plant roots. Plants of the nature of those under discussion will not thrive with wet feet.

Chapter III Soils

For Muskmelons. — Most writers on muskmelons advocate the selection of rather heavy, sandy loams for the best success in commercial melon growing, for the reason that the muskmelon seems to require a soil which contains an abundance of vegetable matter on which the plant can draw for its food supply during the entire season, rather than during a comparatively short space of time. While it is true that the muskmelon can be grown successfully on almost any good loamy soil, it is a fact that in the melon regions of the middle West, as well as in the South, the sandy soils are almost universally selected for commercial purposes where it is possible to do so.

Some of the most successful growers in the Ohio and Mississippi valleys select a sandy soil that is rich enough, or that can be made rich enough, to produce a good stand of clover. Then, in order to put it in the best possible condition for melons and to keep it so, they arrange a three or four-year rotation, starting with clover, then melons, then wheat, and then back to clover for one or two years. By this process a minimum amount of manure is required to keep up the fertility, as these crops furnish a good supply of humus in the soil, and what manure is used for the melons is usually applied in the hills, although some broadcast it for muskmelons, as the hills are much closer together than in the case of watermelons.

SOILS 15

As soon as the melon crop is harvested, they simply disk the ground with a disk harrow and sow to wheat, sowing clover with the wheat in the spring. This is either pastured or cut for hay and the land prepared for melons again the third or fourth year. Some add corn to this rotation, which is not a bad idea, as it adds another year to the time allotted between the melon crops. This process seems to fulfill the requirements of the melon plants very nicely, as it gives them a seed bed that is full of nitrogen, which will cause the plants to respond very quickly and grow rapidly, and enables them tO' overcome the attacks of insects and diseases with which they have to contend.