MAY.J MELONS. 395 



The temperature must be kept up, by fire-heat, 

 (probably all this month, if the weather be not 

 mild,) to about 75, at the times of regulation, 

 mornings and evenings. Admit air so freely in sun- 

 shine, as to keep it down to 85 or 80 ; more par- 

 ticularly as the fruit approach to maturity, which 

 will much enhance its flavour. 



HOT-BEDS. 



Of Melons. 



The fruit will now be fast approaching to matu- 

 rity, if the plants have been treated as directed in 

 the former months, and if the weather have not been 

 very adverse *. As it ripens, let the quantity of 

 wa^er be lessened, giving as much only as will just 

 sustain the plants, and keep them in health. 



A free admission of air is now of very great im- 

 portance, for giving flavour to the fruit; which 

 may be further enhanced by thinning out the vines, 

 and by picking off such leaves, as shade it from the 

 sun. 



Melons, if allowed to remain on the plant till 

 they be of a deep yellow colour, (which many do,) 

 lose much of their flavour. They should therefore 

 be cut as soon as they begin to change to a greenish 



* I formerly cut melons, for three years successively, on the 

 15th, 12th, and 10th May, and never sowed before the last week 

 of January or first of February. In 1788, when at Rainham Hall 

 in Norfolk, I sowed melons on the 12th March, and cut ripe 

 fruit on the 20th May. The kind was the Early Golden Cante- 

 lope. This shows how little is to be gained, or rather, how much 

 may be lost, by early forcing. 



