THE SOIL AND ITS DEPTH. 209 
by great care in watering. As the fruits begin to ma- 
ture, water the house very sparingly. ‘‘The less water 
given, the higher will be the flavor of the fruit.’’* Inas- 
much as old or fruiting plants require a dry house, and 
young plants thrive best in a moister atmosphere, it is 
not advisable to attempt to grow successive plantings of 
melons simultaneously in the same house. 
Recent English instructions, by James Barkham,f give 
the following advice about melon soil: ‘‘The top spit 
from an old pasture is what I prefer, if such is obtain- 
able, soil such as a good, strong, yellow loam _ being 
most suitable. This should be broken up with the spade 
to about the size of a duck’s egg. Do not use any 
manure, but to every cartload of loam add _ two bar- 
rowloads of old mortar or plaster, broken up and run 
through an inch mesh sieve, and one barrowload of half- 
decayed leaf soil, turning the whole two or three times, 
so as to thoroughly mix it. Mistakes are often made in 
preparing soil for melons by making it too rich by add- 
ing manure, which encourages a too luxuriant growth. 
When this is so, it is an impossibility to obtain satisfac- 
tory results, as the growth becomes so succulent that 
instead of the fruit setting it turns yellow and decays.’’ 
The bench should not be above 7 inches deep, and 
perhaps 5 inches is better. If the soil is too deep, the 
plants grow too much, and are late in coming into bear- 
ing. If the bench is 4 feet wide, two rows of plants, 
2% feet apart in the rows, may be grown; but if the 
bench is an outside one, it may be handier in training 
if there is but a single row, with the plants about 18 
inches apart. It should always be borne in mind, how- 
ever, that at least twice the number of plants should be 
set in the beds which are ultimately to grow in them, 
*George Mills, A Treatise on the Cucumber and Melon, 73. 
+James Barkham, F. R. H. S., in Journal of the Royal Horticul- 
tural Society, xx. p. I (1896). 
