Method of grcnohig the Melon. 461 



the usual hotbed sashes, the condensed steam runs off them 

 with more certainty ; and the glass is better able to resist the 

 effects of hail. The interior of this hotbed might also be 

 cleared away in winter, or at any other season, and room made 

 for green-house plants ; if the platform is movable, a height 

 of from 4 to 6 ft. may be obtained, and the side walls re- 

 newed with stable muck or soil. 



Sisoeeiieij Hall^ Jime, 1829. T. A. Parker. 



Art. XIII. On a Method qfgroiving the Melon. 

 By Mr. John Lovell. 



Sir, 



The method I have adopted of growing the melon varies 

 in one or two very essential points from any that I have yet 

 seen practised ; first, in well bedding and firmly rooting the 

 plants, to support a good crop of fruit; secondly, in early 

 setting and preserving the first fruit, and forcing the whole 

 of the plants luxuriantly through the whole of the period 

 necessaiy for their maturity. 



To effect this, I prepare my bed with dung well watered 

 and fermented, or tan ; not wishing such a strong heat as for 

 cucumbers. I sow the seeds in pots, in which the plants are 

 to remain until they are turned into the hills, leaving only 

 three plants in each pot. These I place on the dung in order 

 to start them, as soon as the bed is made up, unless there 

 should be another bed in use at the same time. As soon as 

 the second rough leaf appears, I put a hill of good melon 

 soil under each light, i. e. good loam and turf, adding a sixth 

 part of good rotten dung, well mixed with the spade, but not 

 sifted. This I water if dry, and tread in the hills firmly, 

 making a hole in the centre, and turning out a pot of plants 

 with the ball entire into each hole. Should the weather be very 

 warm, I water them over head abundantly, and in the space of 

 a fortnight they will have grown to four or five joints each. 

 I then stop them down to three joints. By this time the heat 

 of the bed will have become reduced to such a temperature 

 as to allow of moulding up the plants, well treading in and 

 watering as you proceed. As the plants will at this time be 

 strongly rooted and in vigorous growth, in the course of three 

 days they will have pushed a strong shoot from each of the 

 three eyes in a horizontal direction; and they will seldom 

 fail of showing fruit at the first joint; you may rely, at least, 

 on two out of three of these fruit setting. Before the fruit 



