200 MELo.s. 



lateral branches, which must again be pinched off, as soon as 

 they respectively attain to the length of ten inches. When 

 the plant has outgrown the glass, the latter becomes use- 

 less, and may be removed ; but, should the weather be wet 

 or chilly, substitute coverings of clean straw for that of the 

 glasses, until the young plant becomes strong enough to 

 bear the open air. Two or three melons only are left on 

 each vine, and under each of these is placed a slate, with- 

 out which the upper and under side will not ripen together. 

 Two months are required to mature them. The people of 

 Honfleur attribute their success in melon-raising to the sea- 

 vapour which surrounds them, and to the saline particles 

 contain^ in it, an advantage to be any where commanded, 

 by dissolving a little salt in the water employed to moisten 

 them." Whether a bed of slate would prove too warm 

 for the melon in our climate, we cannot say. Perhaps 

 shingles or boards might be preferable, as they would not 

 be rendered so hot by the noon-day sun, nor so cold by 

 the night air. We have never known salt, either in sub- 

 stance or solution, used as a manure for melons, but think 

 it would be well to try its effects. 



The following are M'Mahon's directions for raising mel- 

 ons in the open ground. Some time in May, " prepare a 

 place of rich, sandy ground, well exposed to the sun ; ma- 

 nure it, and give it a good digging ; then mark it out 

 into squares of six feet every way ; at the angle of every 

 square dig a hole twelve inches deep, and eighteen over, 

 into which put seven or eight inches deep of old hot-bed 

 dung, or very rotten manure ; throw thereon about four 

 inches of earth, and mix the dung and earth well with the 

 spade ; after which draw the remainder of the earth over 

 the mixture, so as to form a round hill about a foot broad at 

 top. Some people use hot stable-dung under an idea that 

 its heat would promote the vegetation of the seed : this is 

 a mistaken notion, as, in a few hours, it loses all it had, for 

 want of a sufficient quantity being together to promote fer- 

 mentation, and becomes a dryish wisp, unfit, at least for 

 the present, to afford either h-eat or nourishment to the 

 plants. 



" When your hills are all prepared as above, plant in 

 each, towards the centre, eight or nine grains of good mel- 



pla;rt hns arauired three or four leaves ; while others lake off the principal 

 branches of the first eye above the fruit, and suppress all the secondary branch- 

 es, male flowers and tendrils. These operations, says Mr. Bosc, are founded 

 in bad reasoning. A cutting, which suppresses two" thirds of ilie plant at ouca 

 <vnnot faille disorganize what remains. 1 ' 



