By Mr. Patrick Flanagan. 189 



of very rotten dung ; these are well mixed together and laid 

 in a ridge to meliorate, six weeks or two months before it is 

 wanted for use. 



As I always grow Cucumbers both on dung and in brick 

 pits through the winter, the expense and trouble of a seed 

 bed for Melons is saved, by using one of the Cucumber 

 frames, which answers equally as well for that purpose. I 

 sow the early Melon seeds the first week in January, and 

 place the seed pots as near the glass of the frame as I can. 

 In eight or nine days after sowing, when the seed-leaves are 

 fully expanded, I put my Melon plants into small pots of five 

 inches diameter, three plants into a pot, and when they 

 have made the second or third rough leaf, I stop them. These 

 plants, if they have been duly attended to, will have filled the 

 pots with roots, and be fit for turning out into the Melon 

 frame by the sixth or seventh of February. 



I generally line my pits a week or ten days, before the 

 plants are fit to put out, always using for my linings quite 

 fresh dung, which I prefer not only because the expense and 

 trouble of preparing the dung in the usual mode is saved, 

 but because it loses much of its strength in the preparation ; 

 all danger from the steam of it may be avoided by proper 

 attention in the gardener or his assistant. For the same 

 reason, when I renew my linings, or add to them, I also inva- 

 riably employ fresh dung. 



When the heat from my first linings comes up, I treat the 

 frame exactly in the same way, as I do after the plants are 

 ridged out in it, not only in giving air but in covering it, and 

 watering the flues, as hereafter described. 



In introducing the compost into the frames, I first spread 



