14 



CUCURBITACE^E. IV. CUCUMIS. 



and be shaded from the sun for a few days, exposing them to 

 his rays by degrees. The future management of the plants dif- 

 fer in nothing from that of melons in a hot-bed till September, 

 when it will be proper to apply fire heat." " About the begin- 

 ning of September it will be proper to apply fire heat, in order 

 to further the progress of late fruit, and to dry off damps. Let 

 the fires be made very moderate at first, however, and increase 

 their strength as the season becomes more cold and wet. Keep 

 the mercury up to 70 in the night, and in the day by the addi- 

 tion of air keep it down to about 80 or 75. Very little water 

 will now suffice for the plants, as their roots will be fully esta- 

 blished, and be spread over the whole bed ; the heat of which 

 will also now have subsided. They should only, therefore, have 

 a little water once in 8 or 10 days, and as the fruit begin to 

 ripen off, entirely withhold it. Keep the plants moderately thin 

 of vines and foliage ; be careful to pick off all damped leaves 

 as they appear ; and fully expose the fruit to the sun as it 

 ripens, in the manner directed for melons in the hot-bed. In 

 this manner I have often had melons in October and November 

 fully swelled, and in good, but not of course in high perfection, 

 for want of sun to give them flavour. Any who have a pit of 

 this kind, however, for the forcing of early vegetables, straw- 

 berries, flowers, &c. cannot, perhaps, occupy it to a better pur- 

 pose in the latter part of the season, as the trouble is but little, 

 and the expence not worth mentioning." 



Culture of melons in M'Phail's pit.- -The inventor of this 

 pit says, " For the purpose of raising melons early, for many 

 years I cultivated them on a brick bed, on the same construc- 

 tion as that which I invented for rearing early cucumbers, ex- 

 cepting only that through the pit of each 3-light box I carried 

 no cross flues. When this bed was first set to work, I had the 

 pits filled level with the surface of the flues, with well fermented 

 dung or with the dung of old linings from the cucumbei-bed. 

 In each 3-light division I made the pit about 3 feet 6 inches 

 wide and 10 feet long, and 3 feet deep below the surface of the 

 flues. On the surface of the dung in the pits, I had laid about 

 10 inches thick of good earth, in a ridge of.-a*out 20 inches 

 wide, from one end of the pit to the other. When this was 

 done, I made a lining round the bed, and as soon as the earth 

 became warm, I set the plants into the ridge of the earth, and 

 gave them a little water, and kept a strong heat in the frames, 

 and filled up the pit gradually as the roots and plants extended 

 themselves." " The dung or leaves of trees in the pit require 

 not to be changed every year, neither need the earth for the 

 plants be removed entirely every season, for by experience I 

 found it to do very well by digging, and mixing with it some, 

 fresh earth and manure in winter, and exposing it to the rains, 

 the frost, and the snow." " In forcing melons early, the surface 

 of the cross flues, as well as the surrounding and outside ones, 

 should be kept bare of mould till the days of the spring get 

 long, which will let the heat of the linings arise freely through 

 the covers of the flues to warm the air among the plants. After 

 the cross flues are covered with earth, those which surround 

 each frame may be left uncovered till the month of May or 

 June." Gard. rem. p. 64. 



The culture in the brick bed is, in other respects, the same as 

 that already given for melons in frames, and cucumbers in brick 

 beds. See the monthly table of temperature under the cucumber. 



Culture under hand-glasses. " A successive or late crop, to 

 fruit in August and September, may be raised on hot-bed ridges 

 under hand-glasses. Sow in a hot-bed from the middle of 

 March to the middle of April. When the plants have been up 

 a few days, while in the seed-leaves, prick some into small pots, 

 two plants in each ; water and plunge them into a hot-bed, 

 managing as directed for the young frame plants, till the rough 

 leaves are from 2-4 inches long, and the plants ready to shoot into 



runners. From the middle of March to the third week of May, 

 when the plants are a month or five weeks old, they will be fit to 

 ridge out under hand-glasses. With well-prepared stable-dung, 

 or, with a mixture of fermented tree-leaves, build the hot-bed four 

 feet wide and 2J feet thick, the length according to the number 

 of glasses intended, allotting the space of 4 feet to each. In a 

 week or ten days, or when the dung and leaves are brought to a 

 sweet or well-tempered heat, mould the bed 10 or 12 inches thick, 

 then place the glasses along the middle, and keep them close 

 till the bed has warmed the earth. The same, or next day, 

 insert the plants ; turn them out from the pots with the ball of 

 earth entire, and allotting plants for each glass, insert the ball 

 into the earth, clean down over the top, closing the mould about 

 the stems. Give a little water and place the glasses over close. 

 From about nine in the morning till three in the afternoon, of 

 the first two or three days, shade the plants till they have taken 

 root, when admit the sun more freely, yet only by degrees from 

 day to day, till they can bear it fully without flagging much. 

 Give air daily, in temperate weather, by tilting the edge of the 

 glasses on the south side, an inch or two ; but in the present 

 stage of the plants shut close at night. Cover with mats till 

 morning, constantly keeping the glasses over. Give occasional 

 moderate waterings with aired water. Cover in the day time 

 with mats in bad weather, or heavy or cold rains ; and continue 

 the night covering until confirmed summer in July. Meanwhile 

 attend to the heat of the bed ; if this be declined, so that the 

 minimum temperature be not 65 at night, with the aid of mat- 

 ting, line the sides with hot dung, covered with a layer of mould. 

 The revived heat from the linings will forward the plants in 

 fruiting, while the earth at top will enlarge the surface for the 

 runners, "and the bed for the roots. When the runners have 

 extended considerably and filled the^'glasses, they must be trained 

 out. Accordingly, at the beginning of June, in favourable 

 settled warm weather, train out the runners, cutting away 

 dwindling and useless crowding shoots ; then the glasses must 

 be raised all round, 2 or 3 1 inches, upon props to remain day 

 and night. " Cover with mats in cold nights and bad weather, 

 but first artli the bed over with rods or hoop-bands to sup- 

 port the "mats. Apply moderate waterings as necessary in the 

 morning or. afternoon. Oiled paper frames, formed either arch- 

 wise, or with 2 sloping sides, about 2 feet or 2-j feet high, and 

 of the width of the bed, are very serviceable in this stage. 

 Some persons use them from the first, under a deficiency of 

 hand-glasses. But the proper time for having recourse to them, 

 is when the plants have been forwarded in hand-glasses till the 

 runners require training out beyond the limits of the glasses, 

 some time in June ; then removing the glasses, substitute the 

 oiled frames, as these paper screens will entirely afford pro- 

 tection from heavy rains or tempests, as well as from nocturnal 

 cold, and also screen the plants from the excessive heat of the 

 sun, while, being pellucid, they admit its influence of light and 

 warmth effectually. Give proper admission of free air below, 

 and occasional watering. With respect, however, to the crop 

 for which no oiled paper frames have been provided, continue 

 the hand-glasses constantly on the bed, over the main head and 

 stem of the plants throughout the season, to defend those capital 

 parts from casual injuries by the weather. Throughout June, 

 and thence to the decline of summer, be careful, if much rain 

 or other unfavourable weather, or cold nights occur, to shelter 

 the beds occasionally, with an awning of mats or canvass, par- 

 ticularly when the plants are in blossom. Likewise turn in 

 some of the best full set exterior fruit under the glasses, or 

 some spare glasses might be put over the outside melons, to 

 forward them without check to maturity. Some will be ready 

 to cut in July, others in August, the more general time, and in 

 September ; they being generally, after setting, from 30-40 days 



