THE CULINARY GARDEN. 



S3 



would be extremely inconvenient if placed within the walls of 

 the garden, independently of the uncleanly effect which it ex- 

 hibits from the dispersion of the litter, and other unpleasant 

 circumstances inseparably connected with hot-beds. The com- 

 post yard, for the preparation of the various sorts of moulds 

 used in the garden, as well as a piece of ground appropriated 

 for rubbish, pea-stakes, fire-wood, &c., should be contiguous 

 to the melon-ground ; and, for the appearance of greater neat- 

 ness and regularity, these places should be divided from each 

 other by walls, or evergreen hedges, which will not only 

 afford shelter, but also conceal all disagreeable and unseemly 

 objects. The site of these grounds should be either behind 

 the garden, or in the slips on the eastern or western sides, pre- 

 ferring those situations, which are exposed to the sun during 

 the short days of winter, and sheltered sufficiently from winds, 

 but not to that extent, as to render them damp or gloomy. 



The nearer that the melon-ground is placed to the forcing- 

 houses the better, as the operations in both are intimately con- 

 nessed ; and where pits are used, the melon-ground may be rend- 

 ered a neat appendage to the garden, if kept neat and clear of all 

 superfluous matter ; but, where frames and dung-beds are used, 

 the very materials of which they are made, preclude the possi- 

 bility of absolute neatness ; neither is there any particular ne- 

 cessity in the melon-ground for that systematic attention to 

 neatness, which is so indispensable in the other departments of 

 the garden. Were the hot-water system of heating more gene- 

 rally adopted, as applied to the forcing of fruits and vegetables, 

 a very neat melon-ground might be made of well constructed 

 pits, heated only by that means, and at a comparatively less ex- 

 pense than that, which is incurred in ordinary practice. The 

 compost-ground should also be exposed to the full influence of 

 the sun, and be rendered perfectly dry by draining or other- 

 wise. Damp and shaded situations are peculiarly ill-adapted 

 for this purpose, and should be avoided as having a tendency 

 to injure, rather than to improve the various materials brought 

 thither for the purpose of being ameliorated, and fitted for the 

 more delicate fi"uits and plants. 



