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.
[Illustration: HUNGARIAN HONEY MELON]
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.