Plan for obtaining a Second Crop of Melons. 407 



soil, gently shaking it upon the cuttings. The pots used are 

 twenty-fours. After being watered, I place the pots in a 

 small one-light frame, a hot-bed having been previously pre- 

 pared under it a sufficient time, to allow the burning heat to 

 subside before the bed is thus used. T cover the bed to the 

 depth of eight or ten inches with moderately dry soil ; in this 

 the pots with the cuttings are plunged up to the rim. The 

 frame is then kept close for four or five days, in order to retain 

 the steam, which is very essential in supporting the cuttings 

 until they strike root. The frame is also shaded for some 

 time during four or five hours in the middle of the day. 

 Care is also taken that the heat is not so intense at the 

 bottom of the pots as to burn the cuttings. In about a week 

 the cuttings, if properly managed, will have struck root ; this 

 will be shown by their shoots pushing. 



The first crop of Melons having been gathered from the 

 old plants, I take out the soil in which they have grown, 

 and replace it with some new, to the depth of twelve inches. 

 The beds are also at the same time lined with fresh dung. In 

 about ten days from the time of inserting the cuttings, they 

 will be ready to plant out ; and having prepared the original 

 beds as here described, I turn out one pot of cuttings entire, 

 under each small three-light frame, and to each large three- 

 light frame I allot two pots, one to each end light. When 

 the plants have pushed about fourteen inches, I pinch off the 

 end of each shoot, to cause them to produce fresh runners. 

 The fruit which had shewn previously to the cuttings being 

 taken from the old plants will, after the cuttings are finally 

 planted out, swell very rapidly, and in three weeks after the 

 bed has been replanted, I have cut abundance of fine fruit, 



