:!J:EL0^'3. 



183 



healthy foUage, well exposed to the light ; but let no 

 inferior, late-formed leaves interfere with the older and 

 finer ones. 



Ventilation must be given every day, and the warmth 

 from the external coatings must be kept up sufficiently 

 to allow for the fall of temperature that it will occasion. 

 Continue to w^ater the sides of the frame occasionally, 

 and when the melons are as lai'ge as hen's eggs, give 

 liquid manure liberally; but always take care not to wet 

 the collars of the plants. A week or two before .the 

 fruit begins to ripen, withhold water, and give extra 

 ventilation. 



None should attempt to grow melons who have not 

 abundance of manure at command, as the quickest- 

 growing require twelve or fourteen weeks to come to 

 perfection, and some of the large sorts much longer. 

 For small melons, the bed should be four feet deep, for 

 larger ones, five feet, after they have settled; and they 

 should be large as well as thick. A mixture of oak or 

 chestnut leaves is good in giving lasting heat. The 

 mould used must be rich and good. The over-head 

 watering, which suits cucumbers, so well, does not 

 do with melons, which are only watered at the roots. 

 The great difficulty in their culture is to unite plentiful 

 ventilation and high temperature, both of which they 

 require. In Persia, melons are grown in fields, inter- 

 sected with small streams in every direction, between 

 which are raised beds, made rich with pigeons' manure. 

 A good pit is better than a hotbed for sustaining heat. 

 The Eock melons are perhaps the most commonly 

 grown. The Small Scarlet-fleshed, the Black, the Large, 

 and the Early, are good sorts of them. The Green- 

 fleshed are deliciously refreshing : of these, the Beech- 

 wood is a capital sort; the small Green-fleshed Egyptian 

 is of exquisite flavour and thin in the rind. Others 

 are Snow's, Terry's, and Kew Green-fleshed. Among 

 Cantaloups there are round and long, smooth and netted, 

 the Orange, the Montagues, &c. The Winter melons, 

 and the Yalentia, keep a long time after they are cut. 

 Lastly, there are the Persians, and many useful hybrids, 



