20 Cucumber and Melon Structure, 



the curl ; and that, if potatoes intended for sets were taken up 

 before being ripe (before they are full-grown), the worm will not 

 have attacked them ; and that, if it has, exposing the potatoes 

 to the sun, as I have described (Vol. II. p. 171.), will kill the 

 worm before it has deposited any of its eggs. This hint I sub- 

 mit to your intelligent readers. I must own, however, that it 

 requires more experiments than I have yet made, to come to a 

 final conclusion on the subject. 



The worms prevailed last autumn in the potato, to that de- 

 structive degree, that they consumed much of the wheat sown 

 upon the potato ground, before they were destroyed by the 

 frost. In this and the adjoining counties, in almost all the 

 ground where potatoes were grown, large patches appear 

 naked, without a plant of wheat, although the plants now 

 remaining are strong and healthy. 



Allow me to impress on the minds of your readers the facts, 

 that taking up the potatoes intended for seed next year 

 before they are ripe (before they are full-grown), and exposing 

 them to the sun for a month or six weeks, and, at planting 

 time, observing the eye-cut and placing it upward, will secure, 

 without any other trouble or expense, a crop of every variety 

 of the potato, six weeks earlier than the same variety of the 

 potato, if allowed to grow ripe, will produce. 



I am, Sir, &c. 

 June 9. 1827. A Denbighshire Gardener. 



Art. IX. Description of a Structure, to be heated by Dung, 

 for growing Cucumbers and Melons. By Mentor. 



Sir, 

 Being anxious to acquire a knowledge of the best method 

 of raising cucumbers and melons, without either pit, steam, or 

 fire heat, I have tried in succession all the new inventions, 

 from Mr. Vachell's bed raised on faggots, to the last new plan 

 in the Horticultural Transactions, of resting the frame on four 

 brick pillars, as recommended by Mr. Dickens, and I have not 

 been satisfied with any of them, as they do not give sufficient 

 bottom heat, and the little there is is too soon expended ; and, 

 if a fresh supply of hot stable-dung is not in readiness, the 

 plants are frequently injured past remedy. To avoid this evil, 

 I have therefore now made up my bed in a different manner 

 from any of the plans which have been made public in the 

 Horticultural Transactions or in your Magazine, but com- 



