reason why the coloured people so love them. Anyway, melons belong to
these countries. Melons are a summer fruit. Over in England we find the
muskmelons often grown under glass in hothouses. The vines are trained
upward rather than allowed to lie prone. As the melons grow large in
the hot, dry atmosphere, just the sort which is right for their growth,
they become too heavy for the vine to hold up. So they are held by
little bags of netting, just like a tennis net in size of mesh. The bags
are supported on nails or pegs. It is a very pretty sight I can assure
you. Over here usually we raise our melons outdoors. They are planted in
hills. Eight seeds are placed two inches apart and an inch deep. The
hills should have a four foot sweep on all sides; the watermelon hills
ought to have an allowance of eight to ten feet. Make the soil for these
hills very rich. As the little plants get sizeable--say about four
inches in height--reduce the number of plants to two in a hill. Always
in such work choose the very sturdiest plants to keep. Cut the others
down close to or a little below the surface of the ground. Pulling up
plants is a shocking way to get rid of them. I say shocking because the
pull is likely to disturb the roots of the two remaining plants. When
the melon plant has reached a length of a foot, pinch off the end of it.
This pinch means this to the plant: just stop growing long, take time
now to grow branches. Sand or lime sprinkled about the hills tends to
keep bugs away.

"Onions are about as popular a vegetable as we have. Some people are
quite scornful of onions because of their truly disagreeable odour. But
I do not know what we should do without the onion for flavourings. Peter
is to plant onions where he last had celery. That is very wise, because
onions do especially well coming after a crop for which the land was
heavily fertilized. Onions like moisture of soil, too. If the soil is
not rich enough, nitrate of soda may be added. The most discouraging