380 



FORCING GARDEN. 



The MELONRY-^a department deriving its name from 

 the melon, the principal plant cultivated in it— is an 

 important appendage of the forcing garden. After no- 

 ticing some of the most necessary apparatus employed 

 in it, we shall treat of the melon, cucumber, and gourd, 

 and their cultur-e respectively. 



The common hothed frame is most usually employed ; 

 and it is so well knoAvn as scarcely to require descrip- 

 tion. It is a rectangular box, with sliding sashes, which 

 may be single, in pairs, or in threes. The length of the 

 sash is generally five or six feet, and its breadth about 

 three feet and a half. The back of tke frame is about 

 double the height of the front, it being intended that 

 the slope should be set towards the south. When used, 

 it- is placed on a bed of fermenting vegetable matter, 

 from three to six feet in thickness, according to the 

 purpose to which it is to be applied, or the severity of 

 the season. Stable-litter is the fermenting material 

 most commonly employed ; but tree-leaves, exhausted 

 tanners' bark, or flax-dressers' refuse, are also used. 

 Tree-leaves, when moderately dry and well trodden, are 

 more equable in their fermenting heat, and retain it 

 longer than the ather materials mentioned. If a layer, 

 half a foot thick, of bark be placed over a bed of leaves 

 five feet thick, a gentle and uniform temperature may 

 be commanded for several successive months. 



The Alderston Melon Pit, of which the following is 



Fi- 47. 



