v.] 



MARIGOLD, MELON. 



109 



dually hardened to the air and planted out when about an inch or 

 two high, will be enough for a large family. The winter is propa- 

 gated by offsets ; that is, by parting the roots. The plants may 

 stand pretty close. As the winter sort cannot sometimes be got at 

 in winter, some of both ought to be preserved by drying. Cut it 

 just before it comes out into bloom, hang it up in little bunches to 

 dry first, for a day, in the sun ; then in the shade ; and, when quite 

 dry, put it in paper-bags tied up, and the bags hung up in a dry 

 place. 



161. MARIGOLD. — An annual plant. Sow the seed in spring; 

 when the bloom is at full, gather the flowers ; pull the leaves of 

 the flower out of their sockets ; lay them on paper to dry in the 

 shade. When dry, put them into paper-bags. They are excellent 

 in broths and soups and stews. Two square yards planted wdth 

 marigolds will be suflicient. It is the single marigold that ought 

 to be cultivated for culinary purposes. The double one is an orna- 

 mental flower, and a very mean one indeed. 



162. MELON. — The melon is a hot-country plant, and must 

 be raised in England in precisely the same manner as directed for 

 early cucumbers, the rules laid down for which apply here equally 

 well in every respect but two ; namely, that the lights for me- 

 lons should be larger or more extensive than those for cucumbers ; 

 and that the earth for melons should not be light and loose, as in 

 the case of cucumbers, but should consist chiefly of very stiff loam . 

 The finest plants of melons that I ever saw were raised in stifl" loam, 

 approaching to a clay, which had been dug out before, and turned 

 three or four times in a heap, mixed with dung from a sheep-yard, 

 about one-fifth dung and four-fifths loam. This loam should be 

 turned in a heap several times during one summer and one winter, 

 and then it is fit for use. You should begin to raise melons a month 

 or six weeks later than you begin with early cucumbers. Your seeds 

 may be sowed in a pot in the cucumber-bed, if you have one ; if 

 not, you must make one for the purpose, as in the case of the early 

 cucumbers ; though the season when you begin will be later, the bed 

 must be equally warm with that for the early cucumbers ; there 

 must be linings and everything necessary to keep up a steady bot- 

 tom heat. A second crop of melons may succeed the first, in the 

 same way that the two crops of cucumbers succeed each other • 

 but as to putting melons out upon ridges to be covered with hand- 

 glasses or paper-frames, it never succeeds, one time out of twenty. 



