320 



THE GAKDENER'S ASSISTANT. 



a bed 3 feet wide. The plants will succeed with- 

 out any bottom-heat, but they do much better 

 with it. Two 4-inch pipes will supply all the 

 heat required in summer. 



The pipes to supply bottom-heat should be 

 enclosed in a chamber, the top of which may be 

 formed of thin slate or some material that will 

 allow the heat to pass througn quickly into the 



soil resting upon it. Valves should be fixed so 

 that the bottom-heat can be controlled. 



A trellis must be provided, to which the 

 plants are to be trained, and it is most con- 

 venient to have a movable one. In winter, or 

 late in autumn, or very early in the year, the 

 trellis should be near the glass, say 12 inches 

 from it; in summer this distance may be in- 



■'*&■' ^jkJJm^- 



Fie. 1 mi.— Meredith's Melon Nets. 



creased to 18 inches. The trellis may be made 

 in panels or fixed, about the width of the lights, 

 and under each rafter is fixed a bar of iron 

 projecting downwards, and provided with pin- 

 holes 2 inches apart, so that the panels rest 

 upon a stout pin projecting through the bar; 

 the whole trellis, if thus constructed, is mov- 

 able, and can be stowed away when the house 

 is devoted to the culture of any other class of 

 plants. 



It is a fact known to all cultivators of the 

 Melon, that if one or two fruits are set two or 

 three days before the others, these will have 

 the start, and will swell away at such a rajrid 

 rate that the fruit set later will either be 

 inferior or drop off. Of course it is sometimes 

 necessary to have a succession from the same 



house, and this is obtained by planting the 

 strongest plants at the warmest end of the 

 house and the weaker at the cool end. The 

 earliest plant may thus be in flower a week 

 before the one next to it, and the second the 

 same period before the third, and so on, allow- 

 ing six days between the flowering of each 

 plant; or if the plants do not come naturally 

 in this way, they can be made to do so by 

 picking off the earlier female blossoms, as 

 plenty more will come on in time for setting, 

 so that in a house containing only six plants, 

 managed in this way, a succession of fruit may 

 be kept up for four weeks longer than by the 

 usual way of setting all the fruit as soon as it 

 is ready. 



When the fruit has grown to a considerable 



