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XVI. A Method of growing Crops of Melons on open Borders. 

 In a Letter to the Secretary. By Mr. William Green- 

 shields, F.H.S. Gardener to Richard Benyon de 

 Beauvoir, Esq. F. H. S. atEnglefield House, in Berkshire. 



Read February 6, 1827. 



Sir, 



Being convinced by experience that the later crops of 

 Melons may be raised and brought to perfection, in ordinary 

 seasons, with considerably less expense and trouble than the 

 general practice admits of, I send you a brief description of 

 the method I have pursued with success. 



About the middle of March, the seeds for the first out-door 

 crop are sown, and placed in a cucumber or other frame, 

 where there is a tolerable heat. They are potted and treated 

 in the usual way, till the final planting out. 



The first or second week in May, I prepare a bed on a 

 south or south-west border, by throwing out the mould one 

 foot deep and four feet wide, filling up the trench to half its 

 depth with the stems and leaves of any vegetables that re- 

 quire clearing off from the quarters of the kitchen garden. 

 The remaining half is made up with the exhausted linings 

 of cucumber frames or pits, which I consider better for the 

 roots of the plants to run in, than fresh dung from the stable- 

 yard. 



The bed when the materials are put in, has an elevation 

 of one foot towards the back or wall side, and is firmly trodden 

 down with the feet. The mould that was taken out is 



