This is done to make them branch more freely

This is done to make them branch more freely

This is done to make them branch more freely

Some growers pinch off the vines when they have grown about three feet long. This is done to make them branch more freely, but the pinching is not necessary.

Fig. 95. Dewberries

A serious disease, the watermelon wilt, is rapidly spreading through melon-growing sections. This disease is caused by germs in the soil, and the germs are hard to kill. If the wilt should appear in your neighborhood, do not allow any stable manure to be used on your melon land, for the germs are easily scattered by means of stable manure. The germs also cling to the seeds of diseased melons, and these seeds bear the disease to other fields. If you treat melon seeds as you are directed on page 135 to treat oat seeds, the germs on the seeds will be destroyed. By crossing the watermelon on the citron melon, a watermelon that is resistant to wilt has recently been developed and successfully grown in soils in which wilt is present. The new melon, inferior in flavor at first, is being improved from season to season and bids fair to rival other melons in flavor.