How and What to Grow in a Kitchen Garden of One Acre (10th Ed)/Watermelons
WATERMELONS.
These are also supposed to require special location and soil, but can easily be raised in any garden where the climate is warm enough for cantaloupes, tomatoes, etc. What they most need is plenty of encouragement, in the shape of thorough cultivation and liberal feeding with well-rotted manure. The hills are prepared in the same manner as for cantaloupes, excepting that where the manure or compost can be obtained, a good-sized hole should be dug, and well-rotted manure or compost put in as liberally as the supply will admit of, even half a barrel to the hill. If this kind of hills can be made, you can plant with seed of some of the large growing varieties, and be sure of success, unless your season is very short. If the season is too short, or if you have not the manure for large hills, I would recommend some of the
smaller fruiting varieties, as they are fully as fine in quality, ripen early, and set more melons than the larger kinds. From ten to a dozen seeds should be sown in each hill about the last of May, or when the temperature does not go below 60° at night. When they have got a good start, thin out to two or three plants in a hill.
If your melons are of the tough-rind variety, as for instance the “Ironclad,” you can pick them off at the approach of frost, and by storing them in a cool, frost-proof cellar, have them in good condition till Christmas. Though my own opinion is that they lose their attractiveness when the hot weather is gone, still, it is always one of the main aims, in gardening, to have things out of season as well as at their regular period of ripening.
VARIETIES OF WATERMELONS.
Hungarian Honey.—This melon is one of the best for the small garden. Though not large, averaging eight to ten inches in diameter, it is perfectly round, so that there is a great deal of eating in one of them, while the quality is not equaled in any other variety. The melons ripen early, and the vines are vigorous in growth and very productive. As its name, “Honey Melon,” implies, it is sweet and luscious, and of a rich honey flavor, melting completely and leaving no stringy fibre in the mouth. The dark green skin, and intense brilliant red of the flesh, make a very striking appearance when cut.
Burpee’s Mammoth Ironclad.—A large melon, of superior quality, and where there is room to grow them, will be found a profitable crop for market. Under ordinary culture, it frequently attains a weight of sixty to seventy pounds. They take their name of Ironclad from the exceeding toughness of the thin rind. Cutting into one is almost like cutting into sheet iron, though the flesh inside is frosh, crisp and melting. So strong is this rind, that I have stood on one of the smaller melons with a companion, our united weight of over 340 pounds not cracking the ripe flesh within in the slightest degree; and I have seen a wagon load of melons driven over one in the field without damaging it in the slightest. While it does not produce many melons to the vine, it more than makes up in size and weight what it lacks in quantity, being a heavy cropper when this is taken into account. The flesh is very beautiful, of a dainty
red color and rich, sugary flavor. The flesh is never mealy, but always firm and solid. In shape this melon is oblong, its length often being two and a half times greater than its diameter.
Icing, Or Ice Rind.—This is a dark, green-skinned melon, of nearly round shape. It is a favorite variety, on account of the solidity of its flesh, thin rind, and rich, luscious, sugary flavor.
Cuban Queen.—The melons of this variety are very handsome and attractive in appearance; the skin being striped, dark, and light green, in a pleasing manner. The vines are strong and vigorous in growth, and bear enormous crops when well manured. The melons are large, very heavy, and of the finest quality. The rind is very thin, being scarcely more than half an inch in thickness on a large melon; the flesh is bright red, very solid, rich, and sugary. This
111-lb CUBAN QUEEN WATERMELON.
is one of the very best varieties for general culture in all sections. The shape of this variety is oblong, being about twice its diameter in length.
Kole’s Gem.—The skin of this melon is striped, as in the Cuban Queen, but is not so handsome, as there is not the same amount of contrast between the two shades; the shape is much shorter, being nearly round. The flesh is bright red, and of good flavor; and owing to its tough rind is a very good shipping and keeping variety.[1]
- ↑ In addition to the varieties named, we would recommend Phinney’s Early, as probably the best early melon of good size; also the Ice Cream and Jordan’s Gray Monarch, as very choice melons of oblong shape.—Ed.