MELON MUSHROOM 73 



A service of pipes under the bed will be required ; but as we do not 

 attempt to grow Melons in winter, the heating of a Melon-house is a 

 simple affair, and, indeed, very much of the cultivation as the summer 

 advances will be carried on by the aid of sun heat only. The 

 management of the plants in a house differs from the frame manage- 

 ment, because a trellis is employed, and the plants are taken up the 

 trellis without stopping until they nearly reach the top, when the 

 points are pinched out to promote the growth of side shoots. In 

 regard to setting the fruit, the same principles prevail as in frame 

 culture, and it is advisable to * set ' the whole crop at once, because 

 if two or three fruits obtain a good start, others that are set later will 

 drop off. As the fruits swell, support must be afforded to prevent 

 any undue strain on the vine, and this should be accomplished by 

 suspending small flat boards of half-inch deal with copper wires, each 

 fruit resting on its board, until the cracking round the stem gives 

 warning that the fruit should be cut and placed in the fruit room for 

 a few days to complete the ripening for the table. In houses of this 

 kind, Melons and Cucumbers are occasionally grown together. But 

 although this may be done, and there are many cultivators expert in 

 the business, the practice cannot be recommended, for ships that 

 sail near the wind will come to grief some day. The moisture and 

 partial shade that suit the Cucumber do not suit the Melon, and it is 

 a poor compromise to make one end of the house shady and moist, 

 and the other end sunny and dry, to establish different conditions 

 with one atmosphere. A glass partition pretty well disposes of 

 the difficulty, for this insures two atmospheres for two different 

 operations. 



MUSHROOM 



(Agaricus campestris] 



PERHAPS it would be scarcely accurate to say that the Mushroom is 

 universally esteemed in the mansion and in the cottage ; but it 

 certainly has many friends among all classes, few benevolent neutrals, 

 and fewer still who are absolutely hostile to it as an article of food. 

 Those who find, or imagine they find, that this delicacy does not 

 agree with them, might possibly arrive at another conclusion were a 

 different mode of preparation adopted, or were the consumption of 

 it accompanied with a full persuasion that the Mushroom is not 

 merely delicious in flavour, but thoroughly wholesome, rich in flesh- 

 forming constituents, and, for a vegetable, possessed of more than the 



