This section is from "The Horticulturist, And Journal Of Rural Art And Rural Taste", by P. Barry, A. J. Downing, J. Jay Smith, Peter B. Mead, F. W. Woodward, Henry T. Williams. Also available from Amazon: Horticulturist and Journal of Rural Art and Rural Taste.
I have found for two years, that melons, and especially water-melons, did far best either on new ground, (which all admit,) or after a crop of tomatoes, where they yielded twice as well as on other old ground.
A. B., (Trenton.) The earliest by far is the Christiana - a Boston variety - full ten days before the green fleshed sorts. The green fleshed Citron and the Beech wood, are two of the highest flavored sorts. The Mountain Sweet is the best water melon.
Christiana - "not yet equalled," raised by Capt. Lovett, from a green Malta, impregnated by a very early variety - and for which the Society awarded fifty dollars.
The most surprising plant of the Desert is the 'Kengwe or Kerne' (Cucumis coffer), the Water-Melon. In years when more than the usual quantity of rain falls, vast tracts of the country are literally covered with these Melons; this was the case annually when the fall of rain was greater than it is now, and the Bakwains sent trading parties every year to the lake. It happens commonly once every 10 or 11 years, and for the last three times its occurrence has coincided with an extraordinarily wet season. Then animals of every sort and name, including man, rejoice in the rich supply. The elephant, true lord of the forest, revels in this fruit, and so do the different species of rhinoceros, although naturally so diverse in their choice of pasture. The various hinds of antelopes feed on them with equal avidity, and lions, hyaenas, jackals, and mice, all seem to know and appreciate the common blessing. These Melons are not, however, all of them eatable; some are sweet, and others so bitter that the whole are named by the Boers the 'Bitter Water-melon.' The natives select them by striking one Melon after another with a hatchet, and applying the tongue to the gashes. They thus readily distinguish between the bitter and sweet. The bitter are deleterious, but the sweet are quite wholesome.
This peculiarity of one species of plants bearing both sweet and bitter fruits occurs also in a red eatable Cucumber often met with in the country. It is about 4 inches long, and about l 1/2 inch in diameter. It is of a bright scarlet color when ripe. Many are bitter, others quite -sweet. Even Melons in a garden may be made bitter by a few bitter Kengwe in the vicinity. The bees convey the pollen from one to the other." - Livingstone's Africa.
The following is recommended by a gardener who has had remarkable success: "I dig holes twelve inches square, eight or ten inches deep; fill up with well-rotted horse manure to the surface. On this put two inches of soil. Then take a four-inch flower pot; set in the center; draw the remainder of the soil around the pot, until the soil is about four inches deep, then giving the pot a twist round, withdraw it. This leaves a hole four inches deep by four wide. In this drop five or six seeds, and cover to the depth of three-quarters of an inch. Over this place a pane of six by eight glass, pressing it lightly to fit close. I then give no more attention till the plants are touching the glass. Then go through, taking a small stone, raise up one end of the glass with it; this admits of a circulation of air over the plants and hardens them. In about three days more remove the glass entirely. By this time they will be in the rough leaf; thin out to three plants in a hill, draw a little fine soil around them, up as high as the seed leaf, and the work is done." The Canker Worm - After testing different prescriptions for twenty years, a writer in The American Agriculturist concludes that the simplest and best way to barricade the canker worm is to make bands of sheath-ing-paper six or eight inches wide, tack them around the trunks of the trees, and then cover them with refuse printer's ink.
The ink costs 12˝cents per pound, requires from two to four applications each season, and the entire expense is about ten cents for each tree-annually.