ify John Williams, Esq. 



851 



In a bright day I find a thermometer placed in the situa- 

 tion where the fruit is grown, with no more light falling on 

 the bulb than what passes through the leaves, will stand from 

 ten to fifteen degrees higher than another thermometer hung 

 in the shade. It often stands at 85°, and one day in last 

 June, was as high as 95°. Slates answer much better as a 

 covering to the mould than tiles, as they are dry in a few 

 minutes after a shower, and their dark colour absorbs more 

 heat. My situation perhaps has some advantage in having a 

 tall row of elms, which shelter the bed when the wind is in 

 any northerly point, and a cross row of the same trees at a 

 distance also affords shelter from the westerly winds. 



When Melon plants are raised for the purpose of being 

 planted on a bed of the above description, in the open air, 

 the pots in which the seeds are sown should never be plunged 

 into a warm dung or tan bed, or the roots exposed to what 

 gardeners call bottom heat ; as I find by experience, that 

 when plants so treated are removed into the common ground, 

 if the weather proves cold and wet, their leaves turn yellow, 

 and they afterwards become sickly and continue so a long 

 time. I commonly place the seed pots in March or April 

 near to a warm flue in my grapery, and when the plants are in 

 the rough leaf, the pots are gradually removed to a greater 

 distance from the flue. One plant only should be ultimately 

 left in each pot. About the middle or end of May, accord- 

 ing to the state of the weather, the plants are removed into 

 the open air, placing a common hand glass over each. For 

 the first ten days, air is given regularly to harden the leaves. 

 The shoots, as they advance in growth, are carefully pegged 

 down once or twice a week, to prevent the leaves and shoots 



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