240 On an improved Mode of Cultivating the Melon. 



and ripen under a very cloudy sky. Each plant was placed 

 by itself in a pot of about eighteen inches in diameter in its 

 widest part, and of about a foot deep, inside measure, the 

 mould in them being very rich and light, and constantly kept 

 sufficiently moist with manured water ; and the number of 

 pots was equal to the number of Melons, which I proposed 

 that my hot-bed should contain at one time. These pots 

 were supported at the south and lowest side of the bed about 

 fourteen inches below the glass roof ; and the plants were 

 trained upon a trellis at the same distance from the roof, and 

 parallel to it. By these means, and by giving to each plant 

 a similar extent of space, I expected to see each Melon swell, 

 and be equally well fed and ripened ; and I calculated upon the 

 further advantages of being able to give, or to withhold, water 

 from each plant according to the state of growth, or approach- 

 ing maturity of its fruit : and also upon that of being able to 

 introduce other pots and plants, as soon as 1 had gathered the 

 produce of each plant. My success in every respect wholly 

 exceeded my expectations, the bed proving an instrument of 

 much greater powers than I had calculated upon ; and I was 

 assured by Sir Harford Jones, who first supplied me with 

 seeds of the variety, (which he had brought from Persia,) that 

 he had never seen plants of more healthy growth, nor with 

 fruit better swelled, even in its native climate. The only 

 enemy with which the gardener will, I believe, have to con- 

 tend, is the red spider, and against the attacks of this he must 

 guard his plants, by frequently sprinkling their leaves lightly 

 with clear warm water. 



I had a singular opportunity in this experiment of obtain- 



