The Canadian Horticulturist. 435 



Ordinary freight cars when Hned with tongued and grooved boards on the 

 sides and ends, leaving an air space of about four inches, are considered the 

 best by big shippers of potatoes, as they can be heated by an ordinary stove and 

 will stand an outside temperature of about 20° below zero when a man is in 

 charge to keep up the fires. — Farm and Home. 



RAISING MUSK MELONS. 



T the Henry Shaw banquet to nurserymen, florists and 

 market gardeners, given in St. Louis on the 14th of Sep- 

 tember, Mr. D. I. Bushnell, in speaking of the celebrated 

 Montreal musk melons, said : 



" Great care is used in the selection of seed. The 

 melon earliest to ripen, best shape, etc., is left to ripen 

 thoroughly for this purpose. The hotbed is made by 

 first spreading hot manure fifteen inches deep upon the 

 ground, then laying the frame thereon, banking outside 

 with manure and filling the inside of frame with five inches of dirt. The glass 

 is then put and left for a few days in this state until the first great heat is over. 

 The seeds are planted about April i, in five-inch pots, five seeds in each, and 

 pots placed in hotbed frame as close together as possible. The temperature of 

 the hotbed is kept at about 80°. 



" Early in May trenches are dug, fifteen inches deep, filled with hot manure, 

 covered with earth eight to ten inches, and at a distance of every four feet the 

 melons are transplanted, putting one pot containing three or four stout plants in 

 each hill, of course turning them out of the pots. They are again covered with 

 glass and given plenty of air during the day and covered at night. 



" When the plants make a growth of three leaves, nip off the top so they 

 can send out shoots for fruit. This is of great importance. About July i, when 

 vines have grown enough to fill the frames and melons are formed the size of 

 your fist, remove the frames gradually. Shingles are placed under the melons, 

 which greatly add to the appearance of the fruit when ripe. The largest melon 

 I ever saw weighed twenty-eight pounds, although thirty-five to thirty-eight 

 pounds is not at all unusual." — Gardening. 



" I LOVE all that is beautiful in Nature and art," she was saying to her 

 aesthetic admirer. " I revel in the green fields, the babbling brooks and the little 

 wayside flowers. I feast on the beauties of earth and sky and air. They are 

 my daily life and food, and — " " Maudie," cried out her mother from the 

 kitchen, not knowing that her daughter's beau was in the parlor. " Maudie, 

 whatever made you go and eat that big dish of cabbage and pork that was left 

 over from dinner ? I told you we wanted them warmed up for supper I 

 declare if your appetite isn't enough to bankrupt your pa." And she collapsed. 

 — New Orleans Picayune. 



