Book I. 



CULTURE OF THE MELON. 



• 587 



laid about ten inches thick of good earth, in a ridge of about twenty inches wide, from 

 one end of the pit to the other. When this was done, I made a lining round the bed, and 

 as soon as the earth became warm, I set the plants into the ridge of earth, and gave them 

 a little water, and kept a strong heat in the frames, and filled up the pit gradually as the 

 roots and plants extended themselves. The dung or leaves of trees in the pit require not 

 to be changed every year, neither need the earth for the plants be removed entirely every 

 season, for by experience I found it to do very well by digging and mixing with it some 

 fresh earth and manure in winter, and exposing it to the rains, the frost, and the snow. 

 In forcing melons early, the surface of the cross flues, as well as of the surrounding or 

 outside ones, should be kept bare of mould till the days in spring get long, which will let 

 the heat of the linings arise freely through the covers of the flues to warm the air among 

 the plants. After the cross flues are covered with earth, those which surround each frame 

 may be left uncovered till the month of Mayor June." (G. Rem. p. 64.) The culture in 

 the brick-bed is in other respects the same as that already given for melons in frames, and 

 cucumbers in brick-beds. (3238.) 



3322. Culture under hand-glasses. A succession, or late crop, to fruit in August and 

 September, may be raised on hot-bed ridges under hand-glasses. 



S323. Sow in a hot-bed, from the middle of March to the middle of April. When the plants have been 

 up a few days, while in the seed leaves, prick some into small pots, two plants in each : water, and plunge 

 them into the hot-bed ; managing, as directed for the young frame-plants, till the rough leaves are 

 from two to four inches long, and ready to shoot into runners. From the middle of March to the third 

 week of May, when the plants are a month or five weeks old, they will be fit to ridge out under hand- 

 glasses. 



3324. Fonrdug the bed. With well prepared stable-dung, or, with a mixture of fermented tree-leaves, 

 build the hot-bed four feet wide, and two feet and a half thick, the length according to the number of 

 glasses intended, allotting the space of four feet to each. In a week or ten days, or when the dung, or 

 dung and leaves, is brought to a sweet well tempered heat, mould the bed ten or twelve inches thick j 

 then place the glasses along the middle, and keep them close till the bed has warmed the earth. 



3325. Planting. The same, or next day, insert the plants : turn them out from the pots with the ball of 

 earth entire ; and, allotting plants for each glass, insert the ball into the earth clean down over the top 

 cosing the mould about the stems. Give a little water, and place the glasses over close. 



. Routine culture. From about nine in the morning till three in the afternoon, of the first two or 

 three days, shade the plants till they have taken root ; when admit the sun more freely ; yet only by de- 

 grees from day to day, till they can bear it fully without flagging much. Give air daily, in temperate 

 weather, by tilting the edge of the glasses, on the south side, an inch or two : but in the present stage of 

 the plants, shut close at night. Cover with mats till morning ; constantly keeping the glasses over- Give 

 occasional moderate waterings, with aired water. Cover in the day-time with mats, in bad weather, or 

 heavy or cold rains ; and continue the night-covering till confirmed summer in July. Meanwhile, attend 

 to the heat of the bed : if this be declined, so that the minimum temperature be not 65*' at night, with the 

 aid of matting, line the sides with hot dung, covered with a layer of mould. The revived heat from the 

 lining will forward the plants in fruiting ; while the earth at top, will enlarge the surface for the runners, 

 and the bed for the roots. When the runners have extended considerably, and filled the glasses, they 

 must be trained out. Accordingly, at the beginning of June, in favorable settled warm weather, train out 

 the runners ; cutting away dwindling and useless crowding shoots : then the glasses must be raised all 

 round, two or three inches, upon props, to remain day and night. Cover with mats in cold nights and bad 

 weather ; having, to support the mats, first arched the bed over with rods or hoop-bands. Apply moderate 

 waterings, as necessary, in the morning or afternoon. Oiled-paper frames, formed either archwise, or with 

 two sloping sides, about two feet or two and a half high, and of the width of the bed, are very serviceable 

 in this stage. Some persons use them from the first, under a deficiency of hand-glasses. But the proper 

 time for recourse to them is when the plants have been forwarded in hand-glasses, till the runners require 

 training out beyond the limits of the glasses, some time in June : then removing the glasses, substitute 

 the oiled frames. As these paper screens will entirely cover the bed and plants, over which they are to 

 remain the rest of the season, they will afford protection from heavy rains or tempests, as well as from 

 nocturnal cold, and also screen the plants ftom the excessive heat of the sun, while, being pellucid, they 

 admit its influence of light and warmth effectually. Give proper admission of free air below, and occa- 

 sional watering. With respect, however, to the crop, for which no oiled-paper frames have been -provided, 

 continue the hand-glasses constantly on the bed, over the main head and stem of the plants, throughout 

 the season, to defend those capital parts from casual injuries by the weather. Throughout June, and 

 thence to the decline of summer, be careful, if much rain, or other unfavorable weather, or cold nights 

 occur, to shelter the beds occasionally with an awning of mats or canvass ; particularly when the plants are 

 in blossom. Likewise, turn in some of the best full-set exterior fruit under the glasses ; or some spare 

 glasses might be put over the outside melons, to forward them without check to maturity. 



3327. Crop. Some will be ready to cut in July, others in August the more general time, and in Sep- 

 tember ; they being generally, after setting, from thirty to forty days in ripening. The crop coming in at 

 the decline of summer will not ripen well, unless guarded from cold at nights, and assisted by linings. The 

 pomes that do not ripen may be used as substitutes for mangoes. 



3328. Culhire on wide ridges. The fruiting-bed may be made six, seven, or eight feet 

 wide, for the plants to have an ample surface for their extending runners ; defended 

 either with a regular frame and glasses of proportionate dimensions, or with a case formed 

 of inch-and-half boarding, ranged connectedly along both sides of the bed, without any 

 internal cross divisions other than top cross bars, to stay the sides, and support the 

 glasses. ( Abercrombie. ) 



3329. Cidture on sloping banks. Williams, of Pilmaston, has for several years been 

 trying to give increased hardiness to the melon, by growing it in the open air. He does 

 not state what varieties he grows, but his bed {fg. 463.) is placed on the open ground (a, 

 a), and is formed of a row of wooden posts, three feet six inches high, to the south 

 face of which boards are nailed (6). The surface of the bed is an inclined plane, fronting 

 the south ; covered with slates laid upon the mould, and not overlapping. There is 

 anotlier row of posts (</, d), two feet six inches high, to which boards are nailed on 



