HOTBEDS FOR RAISING MELONS, &C. 265 



METHOD OF MAKING HOTBEDS FOR RAISING 

 MELON PLANTS ; WITH THEIR MANAGE- 

 MENT THEREIN. 



Par. 51. Having ready for sowing such kinds 

 of melon seed as may be intended for the earliest 

 crop, make a small hotbed for a one light frame, 

 (a larger if required for other purposes,) making 

 the bed with fresh stable dung, about three feet 

 or three feet and a half high. Immediately 

 place on the frame and glasses, which will defend 

 the bed from the weather and draw up the heat 

 sooner than when left open, giving vent to the 

 rank steam, by raising the glass or glasses at 

 the upper or north end. When the bed is of 

 a proper temperature, place the soil or compost 

 on the top of the dung inside the frame, about 

 five or six inches thick. Then fill two or three 

 garden pots or more (according to the number 

 of sorts intended to be sown) with the same sort 

 of earth, and plunge them a little way into the 

 earth of the bed, sowing the seed therein, and 

 lightly covering it ; likewise sow some seed in 

 the earth of the bed, in order to embrace a 



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