Melon Mushroom 



A service of pipes under the bed will be required ; but as Melons are 

 not grown in winter, the heating of a Melon-house is a simple affair, and, 

 indeed, very much of the cultivation as the summer advances will 

 be carried on by the aid of sun-heat only. The management of the 

 plants in a house differs from the frame management, because a trellis 

 is employed, and the plants are taken up the trellis without stopping 

 until they nearly reach the top, when the points are pinched out to 

 promote the growth of side shoots. In setting the fruit, the same 

 principles prevail as in frame culture, and it is advisable to ' set ' the 

 whole crop at once, because if two or three fruits obtain a good start, 

 others that are set later will drop off. As the fruits swell, support 

 must be afforded to prevent any undue strain on the vine, and this 

 should be accomplished by nets specially made for the purpose, or by 

 suspending small flat boards of half-inch deal with copper wires, each 

 fruit resting on its board, until the cracking round the stem gives 

 warning that the fruit should be cut and placed in the fruit room for 

 a few days to complete the ripening for the table. In houses of this 

 kind Melons and Cucumbers are occasionally grown together. But 

 although this may be done, and there are many cultivators expert in 

 the business, the practice cannot be recommended, for ships that sail 

 near the wind will come to grief some day. The moisture and partial 

 shade that suit the Cucumber do not suit the Melon, and it is a poor 

 compromise to make one end of the house shady and moist, and the 

 other end sunny and dry, to establish different conditions with one 

 atmosphere. A glass partition pretty well disposes of the difficulty, 

 because it is then possible to insure two-atmospheres suitable for two 

 different operations. 



MUSHROOM 



Agaricus campestris 



PERHAPS it would be scarcely accurate to say that the Mushroom is 

 universally esteemed in the mansion and in the cottage ; but it 

 certainly has many friends among all classes, few benevolent neutrals, 

 and fewer still who are absolutely hostile to it as an article of food. 

 Those who find, or imagine they find, that this delicacy does not 

 agree with them, might possibly arrive at another conclusion were a 

 different mode of preparation adopted, or were the consumption of 

 it accompanied with a full persuasion that the Mushroom is not 

 merely delicious in flavour, but thoroughly wholesome, rich in flesh- 



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