194 GARDENING. 



summers are frequently long, and hot, an 1 dry. To 

 succeed in raising them for market, the Honfleur 

 method, as described by M. Calvel, may be employ- 

 ed. Select a spot well defended against the north 

 wind, and open to the sun throughout the day. If 

 such is not to be found in your garden, create a 

 temporary and artificial shelter producing the same 

 effect. At the end of March, form holes two feet in 

 diameter, and distant from each other seven feet 

 and a half; fill these with horse-dung and litter, or 

 a mixture of mould, dung, and sand. At the end of 

 twenty days, cover the holes which have been thus 

 filled with hand glasses. When the heat rises to 

 36 of Reaumur, sow the seeds four inches apart ; and 

 when the plants have acquired two or three leaves, 

 pinch off the end of the branch or runner.* This 

 will produce lateral branches, which must again be 

 pinched off so soon as they respectively attain the 

 length of ten inches. When the plant has out- 

 grown the glass, the latter becomes useless and 

 may be removed ; but, should the weather be wet or 

 chilly, substitute coverings of clean straw for that 

 of the glasses, until the young plant becomes strong 

 enough to bear the open air. Two or three melons 

 only are left to each vine, and under each of these 

 is placed a slate, without which the upper and under 

 sides will not ripen together. Two months are re- 

 quired to mature them. The people of Honfleur at- 

 tribute their success in melon-raising to the sea va- 

 pour which surrounds them, and to the saline parti- 



* There is much controversy among gardeners and savants on 

 this point ; nor are the pinchers entirely united in opinion how far 

 this practice should be carried. Some content themselves with 

 taking off the cotyledons when the plant has acquired three or 

 four leaves, while others take off the principal branches at the 

 first eye above the fruit, and suppress all the secondary branch- 

 es, male flowers, and tendrils. " These operations," says M. 

 Bosc, " are founded in bad reasoning. A cutting which sup- 

 presses two thirds of the plant at once cannot fail to disorgan- 

 ize what remains." 



