132 FORCING PEAS IN HOT-BEDS. 



raised too near each other. Those who wish to forward 

 Melons, may prepare a hot-bed in March or April, to raise 

 plants in ; the beds may be formed and the plants managed 

 in precisely the same manner as is directed for Cucumbers. 

 If the ridging system be adopted, and a hand-glass applied 

 to each hill, Melons may be obtained one month earlier than 

 the usual time. 



Gardeners raising Melons for the supply of city markets, 

 may gratify the public taste early in the season, by pursuing 

 the forwarding, if not the forcing system. Ridges may be 

 prepared in the following manner : In April or May, a trench 

 may be dug in a warm border, about two feet deep and 

 three wide, and of sufficient length for as many hand-glasses 

 as are intended to be employed, allowing three feet for every 

 hill. Some good heating manure should be laid in the pits, 

 managed the same as a common hot-bed ; to this must be 

 added good rich mould to the depth of eight or ten inches 

 for the plants to grow in ; as soon as the mould is warm, the 

 seedlings may be planted, three plants in each hill, after 

 which the hand-glasses should be set on, and shaded. After 

 the plants have taken root and began to grow, the glasses 

 should be raised in fine days, and propped up so as to admit 

 fresh air ; and as the warm weather progresses, they may be 

 taken off in the middle of fine days so as to harden the 

 plants gradually to the weather ; and by the latter end of 

 May they may be left to nature. 



FORCING PEAS IN HOT-BEDS. 



THE best kinds of Peas to force, are those that are the 

 most dwarfish, and the seed is better for being two or three 

 years old, as they will bear earlier, and make less straw. 

 Peas run less to vine by being transplanted, than when they 

 are sown where they are to remain ; the plants may be raised 

 in a gentle hot-bed, either in the earth of the bed, or in pots 



