226 FRUIT CULTURE UNDER GLASS. 



before air is given. It should be attended to by degrees 

 till 12 o'clock, and gradually reduced as the sun de- 

 clines in power. And in duU mild weather avoid by 

 aU means keeping the house close and over-moist, uudei 

 which circumstances the plants grow rapidly, with 

 less consolidation, and therefore suffer, or require too 

 much shading when the weather changes and becomes 

 more bright. I am not an advocate for much front 

 or side ventilation early in the season, when there is 

 a great difference between the internal and external 

 temperatures. Top air under such circumstances is 

 sufficient then to effect the chatige of air that is re- 

 quired. When the fruit are setting and ripening are 

 the only times that I give front air, even in summer, 

 unless the weather be exceptionally hot and calm. 



IMPEEGNATION, TEAINING, AKD STOPPING. 



The impregnation of the fruit requires the same at- 

 tention in melon-houses as in frames, only the operation 

 is less frequently a failure. Indeed there is next to no 

 uncertainty attendant on it, unless in the case of very 

 early forcing, when the setting process is not quite so 

 free. In training and stopping the plants I generally 

 adopt the close-stopping system — ^that is, to restrict the 

 growth of the plants within the limits of the allotted 

 space for each by pinching the growths constantly at 

 two joints beyond the fruit, "and leaving those shoots 

 from which fruit is taken to grow sufficiently to cover 

 the whole of the trellis or wires with foliage without 

 being crowded. A different system is successfully pur- 

 sued by others. The plants are allowed to grow more 

 at will, and set the first fruit irrespective of their being 



