THE MELON. 209 



and the fruit being thus raised off the soil and sus- 

 pended in the air, places them in a position more 

 conducive to good flavour than when cultivated on 

 the dung-bed system. And setting the fruit is more 

 certain on the trellis system than when the plants are 

 trained on the surface of the soil and unaided by the 

 drier heat of hot -water pipes. Very early and late 

 crops are less precarious and troublesome than when 

 the heat is dependent on fermenting materials alone. 

 Knowing that there are still plenty of gardeners and 

 amateur growers all over the kingdom who have to 

 raise their crops of melons by means of the old fer- 

 menting dung-bed and frames, to make these directions 

 as comprehensive as the circumstances demand, both 

 systems will be treated of. South of the Humber, in 

 England, very little preparation is required to produce 

 a crop of melons in the hottest months of tlie year in 

 pits and frames, which in the earlier part of the year 

 are generally used for hardening off flower - garden 

 plants, without the means of applying artificial heat. 

 In the neighbourhood of London, I have regularly 

 grown good crops by merely putting about a foot of 

 half -decayed leaves or stable -manure in the frame 

 under the soU. In the north, however, seasons of 

 such sunlight and heat as would enable this to be 

 effected without a little artificial heat do not often 

 occur ; and in such localities it is always best to pre- 

 pare accordingly, and to choose certainly not the most 

 tender and uncertain varieties for summer culture in 

 frames not supplied with fire-heat. 



Plenty of melons have, however, been ripened in 

 May by means of hotbeds, common garden frames 

 and pits, but not without much care and labour. For 

 very early and late crops this old system is not now 



o 



