The garden yard

“Cucurbitous” is a fine large word, but you don’t need to learn it. All vine crops are annuals and are tender to frost, although all do not need a hot-bed start. They are warm-season crops, and in the Northern States most of them need a quick start so that they can ripen before the summer is past. Well-prepared soil and a sunny exposure are desirable. They transplant with such difficulty that they are usually sown where they are to grow, but if not, it is best to start them on sods turned upside down, or in pots or boxes. They are always a main crop and are planted in hills. There is very little difference in the cultivation of any of them, and if you know how and where to grow one, you will generally do well with the rest.

Where you fail, you may usually lay it to the fact that your soil was not in condition to give the young plants a good hold and to get a quick start. If your soil is well prepared, well drained and properly fertilized, you will have little trouble, unless it may be from pests. The way to fight those is to sow seed freely, and be content to lose the greater part of your possible crop.

Some growers who make a specialty of melons or cucumbers, plant squash and pumpkin seed very early in the field that the young plants may attract the striped beetle and give the farmers the opportunity to kill the pest before the real crops are taken from the frames. That is a method of deceiving the creatures, but the end justifies the means.

Unless you live where the climate is cold and the season short, you may plant squash, pumpkin and cucumber in the open fields where they are to grow. Otherwise start them in frames, as muskmelons are started. The land should be given the best of surface tillage, and every effort should be made to start the plants so well that the fruits will have set before midsummer. All these vine plants need much moisture in the soil and if the preparation-tillage be neglected, no amount of after-tillage can make up for the first loss.

Watch the vines carefully so as to prevent one fruit setting much in advance of the others. It is better to pick the first one off if it is much ahead of the main crop. Otherwise there will be no uniformity of size or quality. If your plants run too much to vine, pinch off the shoots and let the vigor go to fruit-making.

These crops often succeed as early crop and main-season crop, by starting one about two weeks after the other. Spade up the ground loosely for a space of a square foot or two, and mix light, loose earth or barnyard scrapings with it to make the hill. It is well to add a handful of fertilizer to the earth; but if it seems cold and hard, remove it altogether and replace it by light, warm soil. Of course in the warm, light soils of the South this is not necessary.

CUCUMBER AND GHERKIN.

There are almost no special directions for growing cucumbers if the general directions for all vine crops are carefully followed. Cucumbers are planted in hills, usually four by four feet apart, though for the large, late varieties they may be as far as four by six feet apart. An acre contains 2722 hills when the distance is four by four feet, and it requires two pounds of seed to plant an acre, or one ounce to 70 or 80 hills. That will allow four or five plants to a hill. Remember to plant freely if the striped beetle is at work near your patch.

As cucumbers are eaten when young, it helps the yield immensely if each fruit is picked as soon as it reaches the table state. You should go over the entire patch every two or three days at least, to see that no fruit is ripening at the expense of the growth of its little brothers on the vine. If you want to keep some for seed, reserve a whole hill for that purpose.

For the early-season varieties which are planted in flats or seed-beds, the Early Russian, a small-fruited sort, is the favorite. For the later sorts the White Spine, in various strains, is the standard.

Gherkins are simply immature cucumbers, very small in size; they are used solely for pickles, usually sweet pickles. The fruits of the West Indian or Bur cucumber are also called gherkins. The treatment is the same as for cucumbers, but the fruits are pulled as soon as fully formed. It is quite profitable to pickle them yourself.

On the average, an acre will yield 100 bushels of cucumbers for pickling, but this yield can be greatly increased by proper care and attention. Under the best conditions, 400 to 500 bushels to the acre are possible.

MUSKMELON.

The muskmelon is native to southern Asia and was grown by the ancients. The melon grows best in light, sandy soil in warm, sunny spots, although it is raised for market in many parts of this country, and as far north as parts of Canada. New Jersey is an important melon-growing State.

Melons are planted in hills from four by five to four by six feet apart, according to whether early or main-season crop. The early crop may be planted a little closer than the main crop, and is in the field two or three weeks ahead. The quantity of seed is about the same as that used for cucumber planting and the same treatment is necessary. There are about 1185 hills to an acre, and two or three good fruits to each plant is a good yield. The most important varieties are the cantaloupes, which have hard, warty rinds, and are little grown in this country; the nutmeg or netted type, extensively grown here, and the winter melons, which ripen late in the season and are as yet little known here. The leading varieties to be found in the American market, are Rocky Ford, Osage, Montreal Market and Hackensack, but the melon is so variable that only types, not varieties, are constant. Diseases and insects are the same as in cucumber.

WATERMELON.

Watermelons are even more uncertain than muskmelons, because of their need of a long, warm season; therefore, they are but little grown in the northernmost States, except a few varieties which will ripen as far north as southern Ontario, if both soil and exposure be warm enough. Watermelon needs such a long season, such a warm, well drained soil, such attention to detail, to come to perfection, that it is not a very profitable crop for the average gardener. In the past, the south Atlantic and Gulf States have held first place as watermelon centres, and are likely to continue in that proud position even though the mid-continental States have taken up the industry.

Seeds are planted where the plants are to grow, but all danger of frosts should be past. The best soil preparation includes fall plowing that the winter frost may help powder the earth. The hills are made by mixing several shovelfuls of well-rotted manure with the soil and then covering the mixture with some inches of fine, soft earth. Plant the seeds in this and see that the soil does not bake or crust. This can only be avoided by careful surface tillage. The cultivation of watermelons must be done solely with hand-tools, as the vines are very tender and the least injury to them affects both quantity and quality of crop. The hills are usually ten feet apart each way, and there are only 435 hills to the acre. It takes four pounds of seed to sow an acre. When grown in the Northern States, plants may be started under glass, but great care must be taken to avoid any injury or check to the growth, during transplanting.

Beginners often find it difficult to tell when a watermelon is ripe. There are three recognized methods, but to the practiced eye none of these tests are necessary. If a melon “thumps” right, that is, if it gives out a dull, flat, dead sound, it is ripe, but if it rings hollow or musical it is not yet ripe. The next test is the yellowish cast to the side that has lain on the ground, along with a hard, rough, warty skin in that place; and the third is the way the melon “gives” under pressure of the hand. The last test should never be applied to melons intended for the market, because it bruises them inside.

What is called vegetable citron in this country is nothing but a variety of watermelon with flesh too hard to be eaten. It is not the true commercial citron, which is the fruit of a tree like the orange or lemon.

Insects or diseases the same as in cucumber. If you must know more of watermelon culture, get Bulletin 38, Georgia Exp. Station.

PUMPKIN AND SQUASH.

Although so closely allied, pumpkins and squash do not usually cross, despite the common notion to the contrary. They are distinct types of the same family. The standard variety of pumpkin in this country is the Connecticut Field. The fruits are large, orange-colored and smooth furrowed. They are used to make pies for man and as food for stock, while to the small boy they are chiefly useful as “jack lanterns.”

The pumpkin is often grown in corn-fields and in England they have a summer variety called vegetable marrow, which is in great demand, while our summer squashes, Crookneck, Scallop and Pattypan are also forms of the pumpkin. These are called bush squashes, and may be grown as close as three by four feet in the garden, while the regular pumpkin and squashes require to be planted eight to ten feet apart. It takes three pounds of seed to the acre for each, and a yield of two or three fruits to the vine is a large crop.

There are several leading types of winter or field squashes such as the Hubbard, Marblehead, Boston Marrow, Essex Hybrid, and Turban. To keep them through the winter they should be free from bruises or cracks, be fully ripe and have the stem on. A touch of frost injures them. They should be stored in a dry place with a temperature above 50° and placed on shelves or in shallow bins. Large growers have specially constructed, stove-heated houses for storing them.

A third type includes the Winter Crooknecks, Dunkard, Tennessee Sweet Potato Pumpkin, and some others. The culture of both squash and pumpkin is the same as for cucumber.

The insects from which they most suffer are: the squash bug and the melon louse. To rid the fields of the bug, keep them free from rubbish. Trap the bugs with bits of squash leaves and every day in spring pick off the old bugs. Read New Jersey Bulletin 94; New York Bulletin 75, and Florida Bulletin 34.

For melon louse read Kentucky Bulletin 53 as well as those already mentioned. Get lice in their winter quarters and destroy at first appearance. Use bisulphide of carbon as the bulletin directs.

Powdery and Downy Mildew are the worst diseases. For powdery mildew, spray with ammoniacal copper carbonate, and read Massachusetts State Report, 1892, p. 225, and Cornell Bulletin 31. For downy mildew, use Bordeaux mixture every eight or ten days, until frost, and read Massachusetts State Report, 1890, p. 211, and New York Bulletin 119.