1 8 THE FRUIT GROWERS GUIDE. 



or third joint, and the fruit is produced on the sub-laterals. The main shoot is pinched 

 when it has extended about two- thirds up the trellis, and every other lateral on opposite 

 sides of the stem rubbed off. Such plants attain greater vigour and produce fruit about 

 three weeks later than those which are stopped more closely. Four to six fruits may be 

 allotted to the later plants, which, consequent on less restriction in training, receive a 

 larger amount of nutriment, and the fruits are larger, more juicy, and highly flavoured. 

 When not over-cropped and kept clean, the plants produce a second crop little less in 

 value than the first. 



Extension Method. All the free-growing varieties succeed admirably during the 

 summer on this system in large houses. The plants may be grown with or without 

 bottom heat, but a bed of fermenting material or warmed by hot-water pipes is an 

 advantage. Top heat is imperative. The plants should be set 6 feet apart, and as 

 much earth being used as will serve for a vigorous growth up to the setting of the first 

 fruits, and additional soil must be supplied at intervals, after each successional setting 

 of fruits, to keep the plants growing. Water, top-dressings, or liquid manure must be 

 given as required to sustain the plants in continuous fruitful vigour, the atmosphere 

 being kept drier by admitting air more freely when the fruit is ripening and succes- 

 sional fruits are being fertilised. The growths ought to be trained about 18 inches 

 apart, so that there is room for the laterals between the main shoots. No growth 

 should be allowed that cannot have its leaves fully exposed to light. By cutting out 

 exhausted growths, training in young and removing bad leaves, the plants are kept in 

 the several stages of setting, swelling, and ripening the fruit. Under the best manage- 

 ment more and finer fruit may be had over a longer period by this method than any 

 other, but the unexperienced cultivator had better try the extension system on a small 

 scale before generally adopting it. 



Setting the Fruit. The flowers of the melon are monoacious (one sex in one flower, 

 and the other in another, on the same plant), and produced in the axils of the leaf- 

 stalks. The male or staminate flowers are by far the most numerous, and often borne 

 in clusters on the main stem as well as the side shoots, but the female or pistillate 

 flowers invariably lorm on the laterals and sub-laterals. Before fertilising any flowers, 

 it is desirable to have a sufficient number open at one time to form the crop, for when 

 one or two fruits are allowed to take the lead the later may turn yellow and fall, instead 

 of swelling. Setting consists in transferring dry pollen from the anthers of one kind 

 of flower to the stigma of the other when both are in a fully-developed state. The Opera- 



