214 FRUIT CULTURE UNDER GLASS. 



the one plant to be trained due north and the other 

 south, pinching off all attempts at lateral growth from 

 the base of the plant at the seed-lobes, but allowing 

 the leader to grow on unstopped, till it reaches within 

 a foot of the side of the frame, when, if stopped, it will 

 quickly throw out lateral growths with fruit, just the 

 same as in the former case, the difference in favour 

 of the latter way of training being that the single 

 leader reaches the desired length sooner, consequently 

 bears stopping, and forms fruiting laterals sooner than 

 those plants stopped young, and brought away with 

 three growths. Of course this once-stopping system 

 requires nearly double the number of plants to fill a 

 frame, but in all other respects it is the best for speedy 

 fruiting. These two systems of planting and training 

 must determine whether the plants are to be stopped 

 when young ; and to obviate the necessity of referring 

 again particularly to stopping, I will now explain that 

 immediately the female blossoms with the embryo fruit 

 appear, the lateral shoot must be stopped two joints 

 beyond the fruit, after which the blossoms soon expand, 

 the shoots and leaves rapidly increase in size, and it 

 will be found that there will just be about enough of 

 foliage thus produced to cover the whole bed. All 

 late laterals must afterwards be pinched off, unless 

 some be necessary to cover the surface of the soil, 

 which is desirable ; but these should not be left on 

 the fruit-bearing lateral, provided no harm occurs to 

 the main leaves. 



SOIL AND PLANTING, ETC. 



Like most other fruit -bearing plants, the melon 

 thrives best in loamy or calcareous soil rather adhe- 



