382 THE KITCHEN GARDEN. [MAY 



According as the melons set, place a piece of board or shingle 

 under each fruit ; this will preserve them from the damp of the earth. 



About the middle of the month the frames may be raised by 

 means of any kind of support at the corners, and the plants be suf- 

 fered to run out under them, and by the end thereof you may take 

 them totally away. 



A regular supply of water will be very necessary ; and although 

 melons do not require as much of it as cucumbers, yet a sufficiency 

 must be given. 



The early cucumbers will now be in full fruiting, and will require 

 plenty of air and water ; they may be fully exposed to the open air, 

 in the middle States, about the twentieth of the month, and in the 

 eastern States about the end thereof. 



MAKING HOT-BED RIDGES FOR CUCUMBERS AND MELONS. 



The cucumbers and melons which were sown last month, or late in 

 March, may in the first week of this be planted in hot-bed ridges, as 

 directed on page 329, or the seeds may be sown thereon in the fol- 

 lowing manner. 



The ridges being made and earthed as directed in April, page 329, 

 mark out the holes for the seed, four feet asunder, and in form of a 

 shallow basin, about an inch deep, and nine or ten inches wide. In 

 the middle of each, sow eight or nine seeds, and then put on bell or 

 hand-glasses. After the plants have been up ten or twelve days, they 

 must be thinned, leaving only three of the strongest in each hole, 

 drawing a little earth about their stems, and giving a light watering 

 to settle it close to the roots. 



When the plants have two rough leaves, they must be stopped or 

 topped, as directed on page 127, which see. This operation is very 

 necessary to throw them into a fruiting state, before they run too 

 much into vine. 



As the plants advance in growth, they must have gentle and fre- 

 quent waterings, and plenty of air admitted, by the raising of the 

 glasses on props, under which suffer them to run out as they increase 

 in growth. The glasses may be totally taken off about the end of 

 the month. 



SOWING MELONS AND CUCUMBERS, IN THE OPEN GROUND. 



About the tenth of this month will be a good time, in the middle 

 States, to sow a general crop of melons in the open ground ; from a 

 week to a month earlier, to the southward, according to the respect- 

 ive situations; and between the fifteenth and twentieth in the eastern 

 States. It is remarked that musk and water-melons, cucumbers, 

 pumpkins, squashes, gourds, and all the varieties of these families,* 

 may be sown at the periods in which people generally plant Indian 



* The different genera of this family ought to be kept as far asunder as 

 the extent of the garden will permit, as they are very subject to fertilize 

 with each other, and of course become mixed. 



