Melons, By the Rev. William Phelps. 359 



higher temperature it would dry and parch the earth, and 

 injure the tender fibres of the roots in the bed. 



If expense is not a consideration, I should also recommend 

 the floor of the bed to be formed with tiles supported by 

 cast iron rafters, with a rebate on each side to take the edges 

 of the tiles, the rafters to be placed fifteen or eighteen inches 

 apart, in this form, 



this will leave the steam chamber an open space; but as 

 bricks may be had where iron rafters could not easily be pro- 

 cured, the original plan may in such cases be adhered to. 



My friend William Heaven, Esq., of Peridge House in 

 my neighbourhood, had two large pits, each thirty-six feet 

 long, and nine feet wide, built upon my plan last year, and 

 the effect has been fully equal to his most sanguine expecta- 

 tions. He cut Cucumbers from them on last New Year's 

 day, and had also a fine dish of young potatoes at the same 

 time. I inspected his pits a week since, and found a second 

 crop of Cucumbers in full bearing ; and one of the finest crops 

 of Melons fully ripe. These are confirmations of the utility 

 of the plan. I found his gardener had spread a layer of old 

 tan about six inches deep in the bottom of the bed, and put 

 over it one foot in thickness of rich earth, for the plants to 

 grow in. He had also made a communication between his 

 Pine pit and the boiler, by means of a cast iron pipe, which 

 answers the double purpose of heating and steaming the 

 Pines; this is also useful by taking off a part of the steam, for 

 if the whole was forced into the chamber, it might be too hot 

 for the Melon beds. 



vol. v. 3 A 



