586 PRACTICE OF GARDENING. Part III. 



new dung, because it does not heat violently, and for a considerable time keeps its heat. 

 Leaves of trees make very good melon-beds, but they do not produce heat enough alone 

 for linings ; but of whatever materials melon-beds be made, the air in the frames among 

 the plants should be kept sweet and strong, otherwise the plants will not grow freely. 

 It may be known whether the air be sweet or whether it be not, by putting the head in 

 under the lights, and smelling it. But it frequently happens to be difficult to bring 

 dung-beds into a requisite state of kindliness for these delicate plants, for if the dung by 

 any means get and retain too much water before its noxious vapors pass off by evaporation, 

 it will stagnate and become sour, and, until these pernicious qualities be removed, which 

 requires time and patience, the plartts will not grow kindly ; and besides this, although 

 corrupted stinking air hinders the growth of plants of the melon kind, it greatly promotes 

 the health and forwards the breeding of different kinds of insects, which feed upon and 

 otherways hurt fruits, and plants, and esculent vegetables of various kinds." 



3319. Culture of melons in a dung-pit. u A glazed pit to receive either stable-dung, 

 leaves, or tanners' bark, is calculated to ripen superior fine fruit. The well of the pit 

 may be formed either by a nine-inch wall, or by strong planking ; a yard in depth, from 

 six to eight feet wide, and in length from ten to twenty feet, or more, as required. 

 A low glass case is to be fitted to it, adapted to the growth of the melon. Having 

 raised the plants in a small seed-bed as for the frame crop, ridge them out into the pit in 

 the usual manner. Give the proper subsequent culture ; and when the strength of the 

 fermenting mass begins to decline, add linings outside the pit, if enclosed by boards ; 

 but if enclosed by a nine-inch wall, cut away as much of the dung and earth within, and 

 throw it out, as will admit a lining of well tempered dung." (Abercrombie.) 



3320. Culture of melons in afued pit. One such as that proper for the nursing-pinery is 

 here understood ; and the plants being raised in the usual way, and the bed, whether filled 

 with dung, tan, or leaves, or a mixture of these, being moulded, plant about the end of July. 

 Nicol prefers for such late crops " the early golden cantaleupe, the orange cantaleupe, and 

 the netted cantaleupe, planting -a part of the pit with each. A very mild bottom heat is 

 sufficient for the purpose here in view ; and if the pit have been occupied in the* forcing of 

 asparagus, French beans, or strawberries, on a bark, or bark and dung, or on a bark and leaf 

 heat, it will require no other preparation than to be stirred up, and have a little fresh 

 materials added ; keeping the fresh bark, dung, or leaves well down, and finishing the bed 

 with some of the smallest and best reduced. When it has settled a few days, let it be 

 moulded all over to the thickness of twelve or fifteen inches ; previously laying on a little 

 more of the above small materials, in order to keep the plants well up to the glass, as the 

 bed will fall considerably in the settling. It should be formed, and the mould should be 

 laid on, in a sloping manner, from back to front, so as in some measure to correspond 

 w r ith the glasses. All being ready for the plants, they may either be planted in a row in 

 the middle of the pit, at two feet apart, or may be planted in two rows at four feet apart; 

 or, if they have been planted, in nursing, three in a pot, plant in the centre of each light, 

 as directed for the common hot-bed in March. Let them have a little water, and be 

 shaded from the sun for a few days ; exposing them to his rays by degrees. The future 

 management of the plants differs in nothing from that of melons in a hot-bed, till Sep- 

 tember, when it will be proper to apply fire-heat. About the beginning of September, 

 it will be proper to apply fire-heat, in order to further the progress of the late fruit, 

 and to dry off damps. Let the fires be made very moderate at first, however, and 

 increase their strength, as the season becomes more cold and wet. Keep the mercury 

 up to about 70 in the night ; and in the day, by the admission of air, keep it down to 

 about 80 or 75. Very little water will now suffice for the plants, as their roots will 

 be fully established, and be spread over the whole bed ; the heat of which will also now 

 have subsided. They should only, therefore, have a little water once in eight or ten days ; 

 and, as the fruit begin to ripen off, entirely withhold it. Keep the plants moderately thin 

 of vines and foliage ; be careful to pick off all damped leaves as they appear ; and fully 

 expose the fruit to the sun as it ripens, in the manner directed for melons in the hot-bed. 

 In this manner, I have often had melons in October and November, fully swelled, and in 

 good, but not of course in high perfection, for want of sun to give them flavor. Any who 

 have a pit of this kind, however, for the forcing of early vegetables, strawberries, flowers, 

 &c. cannot, perhaps, occupy it to a better purpose in the latter part of the season ; as the 

 trouble is but little, and the expense not worth mentioning." (Aa/.) 



3321. Culture of melons in M'PhaWs brick-bed. The inventor of this pit says, "For 

 the purpose of raising melons early, for many years I cultivated them on a brick-bed, on 

 the same construction as that which I invented for rearing early cucumbers, excepting 

 only that through the pit of each three-light box I carried no cross flues. In each three- 

 light division I made the pit about three feet six inches wide, and ten feet long, and three 

 feet deep below the surface of the flues. When this bed was first set to work, I had the 

 pits filled level with the surface of the flues with well fermented dung, or with the dung 

 of old linings from the cucumber-beds. On the surface of the dung in the pits, I had 



