ILLUSTRATED IN THE CULTURE OF THE MELON. 193 



together ; for each leaf, when full grown, however distant from the fruit, 

 and growing on a distinct branch of the plant, still contributes to its 

 support ; and hence it arises, that when a plant has as great a number 

 of growing fruit upon part of its branches, as it is capable of feeding, the 

 blossoms upon other branches, which extend in an opposite direction, 

 prove abortive. 



The variety of melon, which I exclusively cultivate, is little known in 

 this country, and was imported from Salonica by Mr. Hawkins. Its form 

 is nearly spherical, when the fruit is most perfect, and without any 

 depressions upon its surface ; its colour approaching to that of gold, and 

 its flesh perfectly white. It requires a much greater state of maturity 

 than any other variety of its species, and continues to improve in flavour 

 and richness, till it becomes externally soft, and betrays some symptoms 

 of incipient decay. The consistence of its flesh is then nearly that of a 

 water-melon, and it is so sweet, that few will think it improved by the 

 addition of sugar. The weight of a good melon of this variety is about 

 seven pounds. 



XXII. ON THE ADVANTAGES OF EMPLOYING VEGETABLE MATTER AS 

 MANURE IN A FRESH STATE. 



[Read before the HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY, January 6th, 1812.] 



WRITERS upon agriculture, both in ancient and modern times, have 

 dwelt much upon the advantages of collecting large quantities of vegetable 

 matter to form manure ; whilst scarcely any thing has been written upon 

 the state of decomposition, in which decaying vegetable substances can 

 be employed, most advantageously, to afford food to living plants. Both 

 the farmer and gardener, till lately, thought that such manures ought 

 not to be deposited in the soil till putrefaction had nearly destroyed all 

 organic texture ; and this opinion is, perhaps, still entertained by a 

 majority of gardeners ; it is, however, wholly unfounded. Carnivorous 

 animals, it is well known, receive most nutriment from the flesh of other 

 animals, when they obtain it most nearly in the state in which it exists 

 as part of a living body ; and the experiments I shall proceed to state, 

 afford evidence of considerable weight, that many vegetable substances 

 are best calculated to re-assume an organic living state, when they are 

 least changed and decomposed by putrefaction. 



I had been engaged, in the year 1810, in some experiments, from 



