14 
and be shaded from the sun for a few days, exposing them to 
his rays by degrees. The future management of the plants dif- 
fer in nothing from that of melons in a hot-bed till September, 
when it will be proper to apply fire heat.” —“ About the begin- 
ning of September it will be proper to apply fire heat, in order 
to further the progress of late fruit, and to dry off damps. Let 
the fires be made very moderate at first, however, and increase 
their strength as the season becomes more cold and wet. Keep 
the mercury up to 70° in the night, and in the day by the addi- 
tion of air keep it down to about 80° or 75°. Very little water 
will now suffice for the plants, as their roots will be fully esta- 
blished, and be spread over the whole bed; the heat of which 
will also now have subsided. They should only, therefore, have 
a little water once in 8 or 10 days, and as the fruit begin to 
ripen off, entirely withhold it. Keep the plants moderately thin 
of vines and foliage ; be careful to pick off all damped leaves 
as they appear; and fully expose the fruit to the sun as it 
ripens, in the manner directed for melons inthe hot-bed. In 
this manner I have often had melons in October and November 
fully swelled, and in good, but not of course in high perfection, 
for want of sun to give them flavour. Any who have a pit of 
this kind, however, for the forcing of early vegetables, straw- 
berries, flowers, &c. cannot, perhaps, occupy it to a better pur- 
pose in the latter part of the season, as the trouble is but little, 
and the expence not worth mentioning.” 
Culture of melons in M‘Phail’s pit.—The inventor of this 
pit says, “ For the purpose of raising melons early, for many 
years I cultivated them on a brick bed, on the same construc- 
tion as that which I invented for rearing early cucumbers, ex- 
cepting only that through the pit of each 3-light box I carried 
no cross flues. When this bed was first set to work, I had the 
pits filled level with the surface of the flues, with well fermented 
dung or with the dung of old linings from the cucumber-bed. 
In each 3-light division I made the pit about 3 feet 6 inches 
wide and 10 feet long, and 3 feet deep below the surface of the 
flues. On the surface of the dung in the pits, I had laid about 
10 inches thick of good earth, in a ridge of about 20 inches 
wide, from one end of the pit to the other. When this was 
done, I made a lining round the bed, and as soon as the earth 
became warm, I set the plants into the ridge of the earth, and 
gave them a little water, and kept a strong heat in the frames, 
and filled up the pit gradually as the roots and plants extended 
themselves.”—‘‘ The dung or leaves of trees in the pit require 
not to be changed every year, neither need the earth for the 
plants be removed entirely every season, for by experience I 
found it to do very well by digging, and mixing with it some 
fresh earth and manure in winter, and exposing it to the rains, 
the frost, and the snow.” —“ In forcing melons early, the surface 
of the cross flues, as well as the surrounding and outside ones, 
should be kept bare of mould till the days of the spring get 
long, which will let the heat of the linings arise freely through 
the covers of the flues to warm the air among the plants. After 
the cross flues are covered with earth, those which surround 
each frame may be left uncovered till the month of May or 
June.” —Gard. rem. p. 64. 
The culture in the brick bed is, in other respects, the same as 
that already given for melons in frames, and cucumbers in brick 
beds. See the monthly table of temperature under the cucumber. 
Culture under hand-glasses.—“ A successive or late crop, to 
fruit in August and September, may be raised on hot-bed ridges 
under hand-glasses. Sow in a hot-bed from the middle of 
March to the middle of April. When the plants have been up 
a few days, while in the seed-leaves, prick some into small pots, 
two plants in each; water and plunge them into a hot-bed, 
managing as directed for the young frame plants, till the rough 
leaves are from 2-4 inches long, and the plants ready to shoot into 
CUCURBITACEZ. 
IV. Cucumis. 
runners. From the middle of March to the third week of May, 
when the plants are a month or five weeks old, they will be fit to 
ridge out under hand-glasses. With well-prepared stable-dung, 
or, with a mixture of fermented tree-leaves, build the hot-bed four 
feet wide and 24 feet thick, the length according to the number 
of glasses intended, allotting the space of 4 feet to each. In a 
week or ten days, or when the dung and leaves are brought toa 
sweet or well-tempered heat, mould the bed 10 or 12 inches thick, 
then place the glasses along the middle, and keep them close 
till the bed has warmed the earth. The same, or next day, 
insert the plants ; turn them out from the pots with the ball of 
earth entire, and allotting plants for each glass, insert the ball 
into the earth, clean down over the top, closing the mould about 
the stems. Give a little water and place the glasses over close. 
From about nine in the morning till three in the afternoon, of 
the first two or three days, shade the plants till they have taken 
root, when admit the sun more freely, yet only by degrees from 
day to day, till they can bear it fully without flagging much. 
Give air daily, in temperate weather, by tilting the edge of the 
glasses on the south side, an inch or two; but in the present 
stage of the plants shut close at night. Cover with mats till 
morning, constantly keeping the glasses over. Give occasional 
moderate waterings with aired water. Cover in the day time 
with mats in bad weather, or heavy or cold rains; and continue 
the night covering until confirmed summer in July. Meanwhile 
attend to the heat of the bed; if this be declined, so that the 
minimum temperature be not 65° at night, with the aid of mat- 
ting, line the sides with hot dung, covered with a layer of mould. 
The revived heat from the linings will forward “the plants in 
fruiting, while the earth at top will enlarge the surface for the 
runners, and the bed for the roots. When the runners have 
extended considerably and filled the glasses, they must be trained 
out. Accordingly, at the beginning of June, in favourable 
settled warm weather, train out the runners, cutting away 
dwindling and useless crowding shoots; then the glasses must 
be raised all round, 2 or 3 inches, upon props to remain day 
and night. Cover with mats in cold nights and bad weather, 
but first arch the bed over with rods or hoop-bands to sup- 
port the mats. Apply moderate waterings as necessary in the 
morning or afternoon. Oiled paper frames, formed either arch- 
wise, or with 2 sloping sides, about 2 feet or 24 feet high, and 
of the width of the bed, are very serviceable in this stage. 
Some persons use them from the first, under a deficiency of 
hand-glasses. But the proper time for having recourse to them, 
is when the plants have been forwarded in hand-glasses till the 
runners require training out beyond the limits of the glasses, 
some time in June; then removing the glasses, substitute the 
oiled frames, as these paper screens will entirely afford pro- 
tection from heavy rains or tempests, as well as from nocturnal 
cold, and also screen the plants from the excessive heat of the 
sun, while, being pellucid, they admit its influence of light and 
warmth effectually. Give proper admission of free air below, 
and occasional watering. With respect, however, to the crop 
for which no oiled paper frames have been provided, continue 
the hand-glasses constantly on the bed, over the main head and 
stem of the plants throughout the season, to defend those capital 
parts from casual injuries by the weather. Throughout June, 
and thence to the decline of summer, be careful, if much rain 
or other unfavourable weather, or cold nights occur, to shelter 
the beds occasionally, with an awning of mats or canvass, par- 
ticularly when the plants are in blossom. Likewise turn in 
some of the best full set exterior fruit under the glasses, oF 
some spare glasses might be put over the outside melons, t0 
forward them without cheek to maturity. Some will be ready 
to cut in July, others in August, the more general time, and in 
September ; they being generally, after setting, from 30-40 days 
