REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON GARDENS. 331 



By the above method, I find most of the work can be done at the 

 time of the year when I have most leisure. 



Respectfully submitted by 



SAMUEL HARTWELL. 

 Lincoln, October 15th, 1885. 



In addition to our observations of the vineyard, we were 

 particularly interested in noticing the culture of the Melon, to 

 which Mr. Hartwell has given special attention, and the qualities 

 of which ample opportunity was afforded the Committee to test. 

 So favorably were we impressed with the result, that we induced 

 Mr. Hartwell to give us a statement of his mode of cultivation, 

 which we append, and the Committee unanimously award him a 

 gratuity of $10 for successful culture of the melon. 



John G. Barker, Chairman of the Garden Committee of the 

 Massachusetts Horticultural Society : — 

 Dear Sir, — At your request I make a short statement of my 

 method of planting and caring for the crop of Greenflesh Melons 

 your Committee saw on my farm early in September last. The 

 ground is what is termed "old," having been planted four or five 

 years ; the soil is a gravelly loam, naturally dry, with the surface 

 inclining to the eastward. It was manured with eight or ten cords 

 of stable manure, broadcast and ploughed in. The seed was 

 saved by myself from well selected stock, which, for want of a 

 better name, I will call the Early Montreal, and was planted 

 under glass the first week in May. For convenience in transplant- 

 ing, I made two hot-beds of eight sashes each, locating them quite 

 centrally in the field ; planted eight seeds in each hill, allowing to 

 it a space of about six inches square in the bed, and watered 

 and aired as needed. The land was furrowed both ways, 

 about five feet apart, and at each intersection of the furrows a 

 place was dug with a hoe in which to set a hill. I like to have the 

 plants set as fast as the holes are dug, so as to have the earth as 

 fresh as possible. When ready to set the plants (which is usually 

 from the 5th to the 10th of June), after being careful to have 

 the gi-ound in the hot-bed well wet and kept wet while planting, 

 a piece of stove pipe about six inches long, to which an iron 

 handle has been riveted, is pressed down over a hill, a spade is 



