MELONS, 181 



CHAPTER XXXITL 



MELONS. 



MELONS in pits belong rather to the green-house and 

 forcing department than to the fruit garden, hut kitchen- 

 gardens may accommodate a hotbed, on which a mode- 

 rate supply may be produced, and turn out very well. 



Melons do best with a bottom heat of about 80, and 

 atmospheric heat averaging about 75. As sunlight 

 increases, they will bear an increase, both to roots and 

 branches, of from 5 to 10. To make the hotbed, 

 throw the fresh manure in a heap, and let it lie for a 

 week. There should be a good mass of it ; fifteen loads 

 for each light will not be found too much, and by the 

 end of a week it will have become very hot. Turn it 

 over, shaking out every lock or patch, and when it has 

 lain for about four days longer, water it well. Let it lie 

 a few days more, turn it over again, and water the dry 

 places. In another week it will be fit for use, but 

 another turning will do good. It must be on a dry 

 or well-drained spot, exposed to the full day's sun, 

 and sheltered sideways from winds which would lower 

 the temperature. If the ground below be on a slope, 

 so that the manure is equal in thickness all over the 

 bed, so much the better. Make a hollow in the centre 

 of each light, half as deep as the bed, place brickbats 

 at the bottom, over them some half-rotten manure, 

 over that a flat square of turf upside down, and then the 

 mould. Avoid planting out the young melon plants until 

 there is no longer any danger of burning heat in the 

 bed; and as the heat declines, keep it up with coatings 

 of hot fermenting manure all round the bed, and as high 

 as it. If the foundation of the bed be sunk, the coating 

 (called by gardeners lining) must be sunk also to an 

 equal depth. Place the frames on the bed, and test the 

 heat of the bed and of the air inside. 



Old seed is better than new, because the plants from 

 it run less to leaf, and so give their strength more to the 

 production of fruit. Give them bottom heat of from 



