190 GARDEN PLANTS. PART II. 



pleasant with the addition of a little sugar. The time for 

 sowing is June, though I think it might be sown earlier in 

 Bengal, say April and May, and watered. The beds should be 

 raised like those of a Tea-nursery, and watered if the weather 

 is dry ; it fruits from July to September. I also enclose seeds 

 of another larger, well-scented, and very luscious variety, 

 peculiar to the Deorah lands of Purneah and Bhaugulpore : the 

 great thing is to sow them in raised beds." 



Melons of superior kind, it appears, have been cultivated in the 

 locality of Calcutta with complete success, when proper attention 

 has been bestowed. More than twenty years ago a silver medal 

 with Ks. 200 was awarded to Mr. A. Millett of Entally, by 

 the Agri-Horticultural Society, for his successful cultivation 

 of the Musk Melon. The method he pursued is given at p. 9 of 

 vol. v. A.-H. S. Trans. 



A few years later Mr. Chew, after many experiments attended 

 with failure, succeeded at last in finding the treatment by which 

 the Melons of Afghanistan might be raised in the locality of 

 Calcutta with tolerable certainty of success. A short time ago I 

 made inquiry of his brother, residing at Seebpore, whether 

 in the years subsequent to his communication to the Agri- 

 Horticultural Society's Journal he found his mode of culture 

 equally successful. The reply was that he did, and that he 

 only discontinued the cultivation on consideration of the trouble 

 and expense. 



The mode of culture will be the same for all parts of India, 

 only that in the North- West Provinces it will not commence 

 till a fortnight later perhaps than in Bengal. 



1. The situation should be open and exposed as much as 

 possible. Mr. Chew states that he has succeeded well with 

 gumlahs on the roof of a house in Calcutta. 



2. The soil of the ground, he says, should be one-eighth sand 

 to seven-eighths clay. But this cannot be a point of any great 

 importance. 



3. Mr. Chew then directs that holes two feet deep, and two or 

 two and a half feet in diameter, be dug at the distance of about 

 four or six feet apart. 



But the plan recommended by Major Napleton seems more 

 convenient, and when the plants are to be watered by means 

 of watercourses from the well, is the only one that can be 



