588 



PRACTICE OF GARDENING. 



PART III. 



L 



the north face, forming a space (e, e} three feet wide, extending the whole length of 

 the bed on its north side, and 



this is filled with mowings of 



fallen ' . ___^ 



A 



grass, weeds, fallen leaves, 

 haulm, and other refuse of 

 the garden. The melon-plants 

 (/) grow on the inclined plane, 

 beneath which is old spent 

 tanners' bark trodden hard (g), 

 and over it nine inches of me- 

 lon soil. The plants are placed 

 on this bed in May, under 

 hand-glasses; the shoots, as 

 they advance, are pegged down ; 

 fruit is cut in August, and from that time till the plants are killed by frost in October. 

 (Hort. Trans, v. 346.) 



3330. Insects and diseases. To prevent melon-plants from being infested with insects, 

 or injured by disease of any kind, no better method can be adopted than to keep the 

 plants constantly in a healthy, vigorous, growing state ; for this purpose, M'Phail ob- 

 serves, " they must be constantly attended to, giving them plenty of heat and water. In 

 warm weather, in the spring and in summer, they should be watered occasionally all 

 over their fruit and leaves, till the earth in which they grow be thoroughly moistened, 

 and a stronger heat than usual kept in the frames about the plants for a few hours ; also 

 the lights should be shut down every afternoon, with a good strong heat among the 

 plants. If there be sufficient moisture in the earth, the greatest sun-heat in the afternoon 

 will not hurt the plants, but it might scorch the sides of large fruit exposed to the sun- 

 beams operating upon the glass, which should be guarded against. The frames and 

 lights should be kept clean, and painted over once every other year. 



3331. Mildew and canker. " Melon-plants are subject to be infected and hurt by the mildew and by 

 the canker. These diseases come upon them because they are not in a good climate, they have not a 

 sufficiency of heat, or the dung and earth of the bed is in a stagnated state. Melon-plants are liable 

 to be greatly injured by the red spider, which increaseth surprisingly in hot dry weather. As I said 

 before, nothing will prevent plants from the inroads of disease and insects but heat, sweet air, and a 

 sufficiency of water, which sweetens the atmosphere, and makes it healthy for vegetables as well as for 

 animals. And nothing will eradicate disease and insects from melon-plants but good management, strong 

 heat, and plenty of water given all over them. Diseased plants, or plants much infested with insects, cannot 

 produce good healthy fruit. The mildew is a most pernicious disease to all sorts of plants. On melons it 

 generally makes its first appearance on the oldest leaves, and on the extremities of the young shoots. 

 The cause of it, I apprehend, is unhealthy nourishment comprehended in the elements, or their not har- 

 monising in the promotion of the growth of the plant ; for by practitioners it may be observed, that 

 when a dung hot-bed gets into a stagnated sour state, the plants do not grow kindly, the air in the frames 

 is saturated with unhealthy particles, and so also must be the juices drawn into the plants by their roots. 

 These must breed diseases, if preventive means be not applied. It cannot be reasonably supposed that 

 plants of a delicate nature will continue in a healthy state, growing upon a heap of stinking dung, and in 

 confined air." 



3332. Red spider. " When melon-plants have become diseased,- or much infested with the red spider, 

 they should either be destroyed or effectual means used to cure them. To destroy the plants is easy ; to 

 cure them, let the following methods be put in practice : get plenty of horse-dung thrown up in a large 

 heap, turn it over once or twice, shaking and mixing it well, and let it lie till its rankness be somewhat 

 evaporated, and if there be linings at the beds, take them entirely away ; examine the dung of the beds, 

 and if it be wet and has a bad smell, take a sharp-pointed stake, and make holes all round in the sides 

 of the beds into their centre, in such a- slanting way that the water may easily run out of them ; then 

 make a strong lining of the prepared dung all round the beds, and by occasional augmentations keep up 

 the linings nearly to a level with the surface of the earth in which the plants grow. As soon as the 

 linings have cast a strong heat into the beds, scatter some flour of sulphur all over the plants, and keep as 

 strong a heat in the frame as the plants can bear ; a heat of 120 degrees will not destroy them, if the steam 

 of the linings be prevented from getting in among the plants. Water the plants all over their leaves about 

 once a-week with clean water 100 degrees warm, and if the sun shine, keep the lights close shut down all 

 day, and cover them up in the evening, leaving a little air all night at each light, to prevent a stagnation 

 of air among the plants. Continue this process till the mildew and the insects disappear, and the plants 

 appear to grow freely, and afterwards manage them in the usual way, taking care to keep up a good 

 strong heat in the linings. This method sets the old stagnated bed in a fermentation, which makes the 

 moisture run out of it, and dries it so, that water given to the plants has free liberty to pass off. If the 

 linings do not heat the air in the frames sufficiently, let some of the earth in the inside all round the sides 

 of the boards be removed, to let the heat from the linings rise freely in the frame." 



SECT. VIII. Forcing the Strawberry in Hot-houses, Pits, and Hot-beds. 

 3333. The strawberry is forced in every description of forcing-house, and also in the 

 pinery, though the heat of the latter often prevents the setting of the blossoms. Where 

 they are forced in large quantities, it is a good method to apply a pit to their sole culti- 

 vation. M'Phail says, " They will occasionally do well in a hot-house for growing the 

 pine ; but a heat sufficient to force peaches and nectarines is more natural, and likely to 

 secure the obtaining of good crops of fine fruit. A good way of forcing the strawberry," 

 he adds, " is to bring them forward in a gentle heat in melon-frames, till the fruit be 

 nearly about half swelled, and then to give them a stronger heat to ripen them." (Gr. 

 29.) Nicol thinks " the climate of the cherry-house most suitable to the nature 



