THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 113 
either from fermenting materials or a heating apparatus ; but, accord- 
ing to my experience, some amount of artificial heat is necessary, for 
we cannot be sure whether the temperature of the summer will be 
above or below the average. However, very little artificial heat will 
be required if preparations are made early in the spring, so as to give 
the plants the fullest possible advantage to be derived from the 
summer’s sun. Those who have properly heated pits and houses 
will not .be in much need of information, and as I am anxious to be 
as brief as possible, I will confine my remarks to the production of 
melons in an ordinary garden frame. To begin early and well is an 
important step towards success, therefore I would advise the forma- 
tion, as early in April as can well be done, of a large heap of fer- 
menting materials. The heap should be two feet wider than the 
frame all round, and quite four feet high. Small heaps hardly large 
enough for the frame, and two feet or so high, are of very little use, 
for the heat is soon blown out of them, and the melons do not receive 
the assistance from it they should do. Large heaps are not extrava- 
gant, for the manure when the frames are removed in the autumn is 
in the best possible condition for the kitchen garden or flower beds. 
The bed in which to plant the melons should be formed with 
loam, somewhat heavy; no manure, leaf-mould, or other fertilizer 
must be added. After the bed of fermenting materials has been 
made up three or four days, and the frame put upon it, place under 
the centre of each of the hghts two barrowfuls of the loam, and form 
neat heaps with it. Immediately the soil is nicely warmed through, 
put two plants in the centre of each heap, and water them well in, 
and for three or four days afterwards screea from brilliant sunshine, 
and then shade no more, for there is not the slightest risk of the 
most brilliant sunshine doing them harm, provided the frame is 
ventilated sufficiently to keep the temperature down to 80°. It 
may be well to make the reader acquainted with the fact that the 
heat of the fermenting materials is sometimes very fierce at first, 
and that if the plants are put out before it has subsided there will 
be a great risk of the roots being burnt. A bottom heat of 85° is 
quite sufficient, and when the beds are formed a thermometer should 
be inserted in one of the beds, and if it is found at the end of three 
days afterthe soil has been placed in the frame, that the heat of 
the beds does not exceed 85°, no danger need be apprehended, and 
the plants may be put out. The bed of soil must eventually be 
extended over the entire surface of the fermenting materials, but it 
is best to form the bed gradually by adding about fifteen inches of 
soil to the sides of the bed as fast as the roots make their appear- 
ance on the outside. 
The training of the vines is very simple. In the first place, the 
plants must be stopped at the third or fourth leaf. If they are 
shifted into six-inch pots before planting out, stop whilst in pots, 
otherwise do not stop until the plants are established in the bed, as 
evinced by their commencing to grow freely. In due course each 
plant will produce from three to four shoots, and these must be 
trained over the beds to secure an equal distribution of the vines. 
When these shoots nearly reach the sides of the frame, nip out the 
April. 8 
