NOTICE OF A VISIT TO PITMASTON. 273 



belonging to a market-gardener near Versailles, and the other at 

 the Pare du Fromont, near Eis ; the details respecting which 

 will be found vol. ii. pp. 220, 241. 



The fire-place for heating tlie house under consideration is not 

 roofed in ; but the radiation of heat from the furnace-door and 

 front of the fire-place is economized by a cloak of sheet-iron, 

 through which the air is admitted by a hole in tiie centre. The 

 cold air, thus admitted to the concave space formed by the sheet- 

 iron cloak, becomes heated to some extent before it reaches the 

 fuel ; and the advantages of heating the air before it is admitted 

 to blast furnaces have been ascertained to be considerable. 



Mr. Williams has long endeavoured — not in vain — when 

 the seasons proved favourable, to grow the melon in the open 

 air ; a practice, he observes, '• by no means common in this part 

 of the kingdom, though I believe frequent in the more southern 

 counties." So long ago as the year 1823, he wrote as follows to 

 the Secretary of the Horticultural Society : — " I have, for some 

 years past, been trying to give increased hardiness to the melon, 

 and with this view have made use every year of the seed ma- 

 tured in the open air during the preceding summer. The plants 

 have, in consequence, become so hardy, that in the two last 

 seasons they grew, and the fruit set as well as a common gourd. 

 The whole contrivance for presenting the plant to the solar in- 

 fluence in the most advantageous way, and at the same time 

 giving a little warmth to the roots, does not cost more than a 

 few shillings." He adds, " I have already cut fifteen melons, 

 and my gardener tells me there are upwards of thirty-five that 

 will ripen before the plants are killed by cold." Such was the 

 success which attended his commencement. The method he 

 then practised is described in the ' Transactions of the Horti- 

 cultural Society,' First Series, vol. v. p. 349, to which I beg to 

 refer those who wish to follow up his plans, and shall proceed to 

 detail the particulars of the culture as it is at present being 

 carried on. 



The open-air bed is raised on the ground-level, on a base 24 

 feet in length and 8^ feet in width. The back is of brick-work, 

 3 feet 3 inches high ; the ends are also of brick-work, and slope 

 from the above height at back to the level of the ground at the 

 front. The bed is composed of weeds, bean-stalks, old tan, 

 garden rubbish, and litter of any kind, made compact ; and 

 finally, about 9 inches of only common garden-soil, in which the 

 melons are planted. When finished, it presents a vuiiformly 

 inclined plane, facing the south ; but Mr. Williams thinks he 

 .should prefer an aspect a little to the south-east. As the .soil is 

 raised a little higher than the back, to allow for sinking, the 

 slope, at the time I saw it, formed an angle with the ground-Hue 



