Melon Slice

Melon slices are a food item added in Beta 1.8. They are farmable and can only be first obtained from Melons grown from the Melon Seeds found in Abandoned Mine Shafts. After growing the initial batch of seeds obtained from the chests, the player can grow additional melons using seeds crafted from melon slices without having to find them in chests.

Usage
The melon seed, when planted on Farmland, slowly grows into a stem which then spawns Melons with decent regularity in adjacent dirt, grass or farmland blocks so long as one is not already present. Melon slices are acquired by destroying the melons, each of which will drop 3-7 melon slices. Each melon slice restores and 1.2 points of Food Saturation. The high volume, low calorie nature of melon slices makes it somewhat like portable cake in that each consumption is almost never wasted on overhealing the hunger bar. On the other hand, due to the Food Saturation mechanic, whether or not and how much of a food is "wasted" is not necessarily clear cut. If the point were to restore Food Saturation to ensure the maximum amount of time before needing to maintain the hunger bar, then melon slices are very inefficient.

Making melon slices into a full melon can be very inefficient as you use 9 slices, and when you break the block you get a lower slice return rate.

In addition to consumption as a food, melon slices can be crafted back into melon seeds, allowing unused portions to contribute directly to seed stock and the size of future harvests by exponentially increasing the number of productive stems. This is of course provided irrigated, arable soil is available in a secure area. This is a marked advantage over the other tilled-earth farming crop, wheat for which seed supply builds up much more slowly. The arrangement of melons also allows a much more straightforward harvesting method without having to sneak to avoid trampling tilled earth, nor requiring regular replanting as stems will stay productive indefinitely so long as they are protected. On the other hand, the low nutrition of each melon slice means the 1.6 seconds of time required to eat them quickly adds up. Moreover they provide almost no Food Saturation, so a diet of melons necessitates frequent stops to eat. Needless to say, this can be inconvenient in many situations, such as inside hostile mob-infested caverns.

As of the 1.9 Pre-Release 4 Melon Slices can be crafted with Gold Nuggets to make a Glistering Melon. Glistering Melons can be Brewed with an Awkward Potion to make a Potion of Healing. As Melon Slices are very easy to farm in large quantities, this makes Potions of Healing very easy to obtain, as long as you can collect enough Gold Nuggets. Gold Nuggets are very easy to obtain if you mine a lot, as one vein of gold can easily make 36 Glistering Melons and that can make 108 Potions of Healing (A vein of gold averages about 4 gold ore which once smelted, can be crafted into 36 Gold Nuggets. 36 Gold Nuggets and 36 Melon Slices [The Melon Slices are very easy to farm in large quantities] can craft 36 Glistering Melons. Each ingredient can make three potions "change" into other potions. This means that one vein of gold can easily make 108 Potions of Healing.