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Water-melons first make their appearance in market about the first of July, and can be had until the middle of October. Unlike the musk-melon, they are of a rather hardy nature, and after the melon has grown on the vine, the changes in temperature, or rain, have little effect on them. The first in market come from Florida, and as the season advances we get them from further North, until New Jersey is reached. More melons are raised in Georgia than in any other State, and of far better quality. The best variety to be relied on, as to quality, is known as the “Gem.”

Musk-melons, although raised in nearly all parts of the country where the climate will admit, are seldom shipped to New York from any distance further than North Carolina, as a musk-melon, in order to be of good flavor, must be ripened, or nearly so, on the vine. When ripe they are so easily cracked or mashed that they would not stand transportation. For the past two or three years, a few, of a rather hard-rind variety, but of excellent flavor, have been shipped from New Orleans, but with only partial success, as the cost of transportation and the loss are so great that it hardly pays. We often hear the remark, “I have not eaten a good melon this season.” This can be easily explained.

A melon is of a very sensitive nature, and the delicious flavor is destroyed by rain or cold weather. A melon-patch from which we get finely flavored melons to-day, may be ruined (as to flavor) for a few days, by a heavy rain-storm; for the melon absorbs water like a sponge. When we have hot nights and no rain, we have perfect melons. Invariably, it is during this kind of weather that they are most appreciated. Melons first appear about the middle of July, and last until cold weather.