406 



THE VEGETABLE GARDEN 



Culture. — Melons, like most other plants of the same natural 

 family, require good soil, in order to grow well and produce fine 

 fruit. They do not succeed well in the open air, except in very 

 rich alluvial soil, or in ground that has been abundantly manured. 

 All through the north of Europe they are only grown in the open 

 air in exceptional cases, and, as a rule, are cultivated exclusively 

 under glass. We shall, therefore, dwell more particularly upon this 

 mode of culture. 



The Melon requires for its growth a moderately high tempera- 

 ture. This should almost always exceed 54^ Fahrenheit ; and the 

 quality of the fruit is always better if the mean temperature is kept 

 raised while they are ripening. Under the most favourable con- 

 ditions, the plant requires four or five months to complete its 

 growth, from which it may be seen that in the climate of Paris 

 there is no positive certainty of ripening the fruit without the aid 

 of artificial heat, and consequently they are almost always grown 

 there in hot-beds. During nine or ten months of the year the 

 market-gardeners about Paris have the plants under cultivation, 

 and these furnish a supply of ripe fruit for six full months. The 

 frames of Melon-pits being lined with manure, the plants are, in a 

 manner, forced, as they thus receive a greater amount of heat than 

 they would in the open air. Custom, however, has restricted the 

 meaning of " forcing," in the case of Melons, to this mode of 

 culture when commenced in January with the object of obtaining 

 ripe fruit in May, while an " early " crop is that which ripens in 

 June and early in July, and Melons "of the season," or the general 

 crop, are those which are gathered from the end of July up to 

 October. The details of the mode of culture are not exactly the 

 same for these three periods, nor are the same varieties of plants 

 grown in succession. 



Forcing. — ]\Ielon-forcing commences, as we have just said, in 

 January, and the kinds usually forced at Paris are the Prescott 

 Small Early Frame and the Early Black Rock Melon. The seed 

 is sown on a warm hot-bed during the month of January, and the 

 fourth week after sowing the young plants are pricked out into 

 another hot-bed, from twenty-eight to thirty plants under each 

 light. During the whole of this early period of their growth the 

 plants require continual attention in giving them air as often as 

 that can be done with safety, occasionall}- watering them from a 

 fine rose, and especially in guarding against the condensation of 

 too much moisture on the lower part of the lights. In March they 

 are planted out on another hot-bed. Before doing so, they should 

 be stopped ; that is, the main stem should be cut above the second 

 leaf After they have taken root, two lateral branches are quickly 

 produced, and these are allowed to grow until they have made eight 

 or ten leaves each, when they are cut above the sixth leaf, and at 



