'■54 



JOURNAL OF HOETICULTUEE AND COTTAGE GAEDEaSTEE. 



[ July 26, 1864. 



lining the bed as the declining temperature indicates that a 

 renewal is necessary. Oak and Beech leaves are the best 

 for this purpose. 



There are, besides, many vegetable substances, such as 

 nettles, thistles, and other refuse growing by hedges, which 

 ■with the remains of the flower garden, as Hollyhock stalks, 

 Pea haulm, and a host of other things, cut into six-inch 

 lengths, dried in the autumn, and kept over winter in any 

 dry place, form excellent substitutes for stable litter in 

 . spring. The above and many other fermenting materials 

 thoroughly moistened by sprinkling either with water or 

 liquid manure, and formed into a bed 4 feet high, will raise 

 a gentle heat, especially if some green vegetable matter, 

 such as nettles, short grass from lawns, and weeds of all 

 kinds, be mixed in to hasten fermentation. With a plentiful 

 supply of such materials, which can be had in any country 

 place for the trouble of collecting, there is no difficulty in 

 growing Melons of good size and flavour. Any deficiency 

 in the heat of the bed afterwards can be rectified by col- 

 lecting a further supply of materials in a green state ; but 

 for maintaining the heat nothing is better than the short 

 grass furnished by the mowing of lawns. 



Other substitutes for stable litter are found in cotton 

 "waste, the refuse of wool commonly called willey-dust, flax 

 refuse, and spent hops. All these are first-class materials 

 for furnishing bottom heat and maintaining a suitable tem- 

 perature for the growth of the Melon. A bed 2 feet in 

 thickness of cotton and wool waste or of hops, and 3 feet 

 of flax refuse, is equal in heating properties to a bed of 

 dang 4 feet thick. They require to be moistened with 

 water, but not so much as dung. If made very wet the 

 cotton and wool waste will not heat at all, or, if they do, the 

 heat will be violent and soon over : just moistened is the 

 proper condition. Hops need no watering ; flax refuse about 

 the same as stable litter, but if anything rather less. All, 

 after having been employed for growing Melons, are excel- 

 lent manures. 



Economising Heat. — If the means at command are limited 

 to the making-up of a bed ; or if the Melons are grown rn 

 pits without linings, it becomes imperative to collect as 

 much of the sun's heat as possible. This is effected by 

 giving what air is necessary to cause a change of atmosphere 

 early in the day ; when the Thermometer reaches 80°, which 

 it will do in May and later in the season by 8 or 9 a.m., 

 open the lights by tilting them at the back. Giving air by 

 pushing down the lights only causes a current of cold air to 

 rush in at the bottom of the frame and out at the back, 

 which is injurious. Air being admitted early, it should be 

 shut out early. Presuming that there is no heat in the 

 bed calculated to raise the temperature more than 5° or 

 none at all, the frame or lights may be shut up by 2 p.m. in 

 May, 3 p.m. in June and July, 2 p.m. in August, and 1 p.m. 

 in September. Any watering that may be required should 

 be done before the frame is closed, a gentle bedewing over- 

 head at the time of shutting up being of great benefit to 

 the plants, and a great annoyance to the red spider. Though 

 these hours of shutting up will prove generally applicable, 

 yet, as all days are not equally sunny, a good deal must be 

 left to discretion. If, after closing, the sun's rays do not 

 raise the temperature above 90° or 95°, no harm will ensue ; 

 but if the heat rise above 90° it must be reduced by admit- 

 ting a little air. The frame may at any time be shut up 

 with a temperature of 90° if there is no likelihood of great 

 sun heat afterwards, but always before the temperature of 

 the frame falls below SO ; and if the sun raise the thermo- 

 meter 10" after shutting up so much the better. The heat 

 shut in or collected afterwards will be better than a high 

 artificial heat. 



Melons grown in the above manner will not require so 

 much water as those in frames with a strong bottom heat; — 

 in fact, none should be given them beyond enough to keep 

 the soil moist whilst the fruit is swelling, and this may be 

 done by a good watering once a-week, which, in addition to 

 sprinklings overhead at shutting-up time, will be all that is 

 required. Sprinklings will not be required in dull cold days ; 

 and when the blossoms are setting no water should be given 

 •either overhead or to the soil, nor after the fruit has attained 

 its full size and commenced the ripening process, which is 

 when it becomes fully netted. The fruit after setting is 

 longer in arriving at maturity in this way than when a 



higher and more regular temperature is maintained. It 

 usually takes from fifty-five to sixty-five days to bring Melons 

 to maturity in cold frames. 



Second Ceop feom the Same Plants. — Plants fruiting 

 in June and July may be made to furnish a second crop ; 

 but it is well to prepare them for this as soon as the fruit 

 has attained its full size by encouraging five or six of the 

 strongest vines starting from or near the necks of the plants, 

 stopping at the first leaf those that appear above them, or . 

 cutting them clean out if the large leaves are healthy on the 

 vine or shoots producing fruit. Other shoots not producing 

 fruit should be cut out, so that the strength of the plant 

 may be concentrated in the shoots selected for furnishing a 

 second crop. No water need be given, for the young shoots 

 will take that which would be expended in useless growths, 

 and will feed on the matter stored up in the large fleshy 

 roots, and so grow luxuriantly without the aid of water for 

 a period of a fortnight or more. If the plants have not 

 vitality to push strong shoots a foot long between the 

 time of the fruit becoming fully netted and that of its ripen- 

 ing, they are of no value for a second crop, and had better 

 be pulled up, the bed and soil renewed, and young plants 

 put in their place. Young plants will furnish larger crops 

 and finer fruit, but about six weeks later than old plants 

 from which a crop of fruit has been taken. 



When the fruit on the old plants is ripe cut away the old 

 shoots, renew the linin g of the bed, taking away as much of 

 the old linings as can be conveniently done, and remove 

 the surface soil of the bed with the hand to the depth of 

 2 or 3 inches, more or less as the situation of the principal 

 roots may determine. A little of the old soil may be removed 

 between the large roots, always bearing in mind that the 

 less the fibres are disturbed and the large roots injured the 

 more certain are we of active root-action. After removing 

 the old soil water each light with water at a temperature of 

 90°, and then cover the surface with 3 inches of fresh com- 

 post, pressing it firmly around the roots. In doing this 

 care should be taken not to remove any soil within a radius 

 of 1 foot from the neck of the plant. When this operation is 

 completed give a gentle watering with tepid water, and 

 keep close and shaded by covering the plants until they 

 become re-established, after which they require the same 

 treatment as young plants. 



Shading. — Melons do not require shading at any stage of 

 their growth if they are properly inured to light from their 

 first appearance from the seed. It always struck me as 

 strange how any one could imagine a plant so capable of 

 bearing so much heat and dryness as this could require 

 shade from the sun, and that in a climate where the sun's 

 rays are much less powerful than in its native home. I have 

 never found it necessary to shade Melons, except a little 

 after planting-out in bright weather to further their taking 

 hold of the soil ; and after a continuance of dull weather, 

 when the plant;; sometimes flag, a slight shading is necessary. 

 Beyond this I do not consider shade favourable to the pro- 

 duction of fine full-flavoured Melons. Though shade may 

 increase the size of the fruit, I am certain that any fruit 

 formed whilst the leaves are not duly exposed to all the light 

 is never so full-flavoured as that formed when they are so 

 exposed. — G. Abbey. 



(To be continued.) 



AK AlEATEUR'S PENCTTJ,TiS T GS. 



THE BEOIEELIACES:. 



Surely the attractions of this tribe of plants are much 

 less known than they deserve to be, or else they would be 

 seen more frequently, and in much greater numbers, in the 

 stoves and conservatories of our plant-growers, ever on the 

 look-out for the novel and the beautiful. I will, meo more, 

 tell you the story of one which has just delighted me and 

 my household, and has won golden opinions from wondering 

 and admiring friends. Tears ago, in the forests of tropical 

 and sub-tropical America, the strange and often gorgeous 

 parasites of this order forced themselves on my notice and 

 strongly attracted me ,- and to this day the Wild-pines,* as 

 they are called by the colonists, form one of the most promi- 



• Pronounced 33 one word, with the accent on " 'Wild." 



