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XXVIII. A new and improved Method of Cultivating the 

 Melon. By Thomas Andrew Knight, Esq. F. R. S. 

 tyc. President. 



Read November 15, 1822. 



I have described, in a preceding paper,* a new kind of hot- 

 bed, into which by means of a hollow wall, a heated current 

 of air is made at all times to enter, without any mixture of 

 the vapour arising from the fermenting material; and in 

 which the temperature is raised and supported by a rapid 

 change of air, instead of being lowered, as it is in every other 

 kind of hot-bed, with which I am acquainted. 



My object in the construction of this hot-bed, was the cul- 

 ture of the Pine Apple ; but I employed it in the last sum- 

 mer in raising Melons ; and I succeeded so much more per- 

 fectly, than I had ever previously done, that I am led to hope 

 the following account of the mode of culture adopted, will 

 be honoured by the approbation of the Horticultural Society. 



Before I began to raise my Melon plants, I calculated, as 

 I think every gardener ought to do, who cultivates this fruit, 

 the amount in weight which I might expect to obtain in per- 

 fection, from a given extent of glass roof. The heaviest crop 

 of good Grapes, which I had ever seen growing in a forcing- 

 house, did not appear to me to exceed a pound to every fifteen 

 inches square, of glass roof, taking into the admeasurement, 

 every part of such roof. The Vines had, in such cases, lived 



* See page 223 of this volume. 



