Feb.] 



THE FORCING GARDEN. 



681 



same gardens ; but if it should so happen that there are none, 

 in this case male flowers may be brought from a distance, 

 carefully packed up in paper, and kept quite dry ; and with 

 them, the important office may be performed. Some gardeners 

 leave the male flowers attached to the female until they drop 

 out of their own accord ; but this is unnecessary, for if both 

 blossoms be fully formed, the office of impregnation will be 

 completely j^erformed in a few seconds. The middle of the 

 day should always be preferred for this purpose. If there be 

 a brisk growing heat in the beds, the fruit will, in a few days 

 after impregnation, show evident signs of the approaching 

 maturity. If the beds be in good management, and the fruit 

 of a good kind, the blossom will continue attached to the fruit, 

 often till it be fit for use, which is, when they are from five 

 to six inches long. Some kinds wWl grow so rapidly, under 

 excellent management, as to attain the length of twelve or fif- 

 teen inches with it still attached to them. Early in the season, 

 it should be an established rule to set every promising flower 

 as it comes into full bloom ; and the critical moment seems to 

 be the early part of the first day on which the blossom opens. 

 Water should not be given them immediately after the setting 

 of the blossom. The male blossoms often grow in large clus- 

 ters upon the vines, and these should be thinned out, leaving 

 a sufficient number only to ensure the setting of the crop. 

 These should not, however, be entirely removed, as without 

 them there would be no fruit. As the blossom fades, it should 

 be picked up and thrown out of the beds, as being apt to 

 damp and injure the vines. 



It will be necessary for successional crops of melons and 

 cucumbers, as well as to guard against accidents which may 

 attend the young plants now in seed-pans or potted-off, that 

 a few seeds be occasionally sown in the frames or pits now at 

 work. Such as were sown at the beginning of this month, 

 will, under good management, be in fruit by the end of March 

 or the beginning of April ; and those sown about the middle 

 or end of this month, will also be in fruit by the end of April, 

 and will be in full bearing during May and Ji^ne. Few cul- 

 tivators sow melons for general crops before the beginning or 

 middle of this month ; as those sown sooner, if they v/ithstand 



4s 



