580 



PRACTICE OF GARDENING. 



Part III. 



heat, it is covered over with eight, ten, or twelve inches deep of rich mould. The 

 glasses are then set upon it about three feet distant from each other, and when the 

 mould gets warm under them, the plants are turned out of the pots with their balls 

 whole, and plunged in the mould under the glasses, and a little water given tliem to 

 settle the mould about their roots, the glasses set over them, and after they have made 

 roots, and begin to grow, in fine days they are raised a little on one side to let the plants 

 have the free air ; and as the weather gets warmer and warmer, air is given more 

 plentifully, to harden the plants, so that they may be able to bear the open air, and run 

 from under the glasses. When the plants begin to fill the glasses^ they are trained out 

 horizontally, and the glasses are set upon bricks or such like, to bear them from the. 

 plants. After this the plants require nothing more but to be supplied with water when 

 the summer showers are not sufficient, and to stop them when they run too thin of 

 branches, and thin them of leaves or branches when they are likely to become over- 

 crowded. In warm suminers and in warm situations, by this mode of management, the 

 plants mil bear plentifully for about two months, provitled they be not attacked by insects 

 or weakened by diseases." 



3263. Abercrombie describes a practice somewhat different, but with his usual attention to detail and 

 order. He says — To have a general summer crop, to fruit in hot-bed ridges under hand-glasses, sow 

 some seed of the long prickly kind in a hot-bed, under a frame or hand-glass, or in any cucumber hot-bed 

 in cultivation, about the middle of March, or thence till the middle of April. When the plants have been 

 up three, four, or five days, prick some in the same or another hot-bed, three or four inches asunder. A 

 portion may be put in small pots, three plants in each, and plunged in the bed. Give water, and shade 

 from the sun, till they take root ; and manage as for the frame-crop. In three or four weeks, when 

 advanced in the first rough leaves, about two inches broad, and stopped at the first joint, as directed in 

 the early crop, the plants should be ridged-out, that is, transplanted into hot-bed ridges, under hand- 

 glasses, to remain for fruiting. The period for this may fluctuate from the middle of April to the begin- 

 ning of May. 



3264. Having a sufficient quantity of prepared dung, make a hot-bed on the level ground, three feet 

 and a half or four feet wide, and two and a half high, the length as required, according to the number of 

 hand-glasses intended. Earth it at top, six or eight inches thick, and place the hand-glasses along the 

 middle, at three feet and a half distance. Sometimes the bed is made in a moderate trench, twelve or 

 fifteen inches deep, in some good soil in the kitchen-garden, in order to have the excavated earth of the 

 trench ready at hand for moulding the bed. When the earth under the glasses is warm, proceed to put 

 in the plants, removing them from the nursery-bed, with as much earth as will adhere about the roots. If 

 you have any plants in small pots, turn them out with the balls entire, and plant three plants under each 

 glass. Give a light watering ; put down the glasses ; and shade the plants from the sun, till they have 

 taken root ; after which, let them enjoy the sun and light fully, only covering the glasses and bed every 

 night with mats till June, or commencement of warm weather. Admit air every mild day, by propping up 

 the southward side of the glasses one or two inches ; moderate waterings will be necessary twice a week or 

 oftener. 



3265. As the plants push runners of considerable length, train them regularly. When extended to the 

 limits of the glasses, and when the weather is settled warm, about the beginning or middle of June, they 

 should be raised upon three props, two or three inches high, and the runners trained out in regular order ; 

 but cover them in cold nights with mats, for the first week or two. Continue the glasses, and circum- 

 spectly water in dry weather, as may be necessary; the plants will produce fruit in June, July, August, 

 &c. in plentiful succession. 



3266. In default of plants raised in a previous nursery. bed for transplanting, sow seed under the hand- 

 glasses in April or in May, inserting several seeds in the central part under each glass. When the plants 

 have been up a few days or a week, thin them to three or four of the strongest in each patch, managing 

 them afterwards as the others. They will come into bearing towards the end of June or July, and thence 

 till September. j^. 



3267. Should thei-e be a scarcity of dung to make a regular bed, in the last week of April, or in May, 

 you may dig circular holes two feet wide, a spade deep, and four or five feet asunder ; fill them with hot- 

 dung, trodden down moderately firm, and earthed over six inches. In these put either plants or seed j 

 and place on the glasses : the plants wiU produce fruit in June or July till September. 



3268. In default of ha7id-glasses : make a hot-bed, or holes of dung, as above, in May : put in plants or 

 seed, and defend with oiled-paper frames to remain constantly, day and night, till settled warm weather 

 in June or July. Give the additional protection of mats over the paper frame in cold nights and bad 

 weather. 



3269. In the culture of all the crops, give proper supplies of water in dry warm^weather, two or 

 three times a week, or every day in the hottest season of June, July, and August. In the hot-bed ridges 

 made above ground in April or May, if in three or four weeks or more after making the heat be much 

 declined, and the nights, or general season, remain cold, let a moderate lining of hot-dung be affiled to 

 the sides ; which will both throw in a reviving heat, and widen the bed for the roots and runners of the 

 plants to extend. {Abercrombie.) 



3270. Insects and diseases. The thrips sometimes attacks early cucumbers, and is to be 

 destroyed by fumigation. The red spider rarely makes its appearance ; when it does, 

 water must have been improperly withheld. Some soils produce canker in the shoots, 

 especially where they branch from the main stem. When this is the case, the only 

 resource is to renew the soil and the plants. 



Sect. VII. Of the Culture of the Melon. 



3271. The melon requires the aid of artificial heat the greater part of the year, and 

 even in the warmest months it cannot be brought to perfection without the protection of 

 glass. Its culture is an object of emulation among gardeners ; and the fruit of the best 

 sorts have a peculiarly rich flavor, thought by some to bear some resemblance to that 

 of the pine. Ripe fruit, Abercrombie observes, " may be had by forcing at any season ; 

 but the main crops raised for the general demand, are seldom cut, at the earliest, before 

 May, and the last succession mostly ceases to yield fruit after October." To ripen the 



