THE FORCING GARDEN. 



727 



ticable ; for when it is intended to keep them for a few days 

 after they are ripe, they should be placed in a cool airy cellar, 

 or fruit-room, and during the time that they are there, they 

 should be placed upon clean sheets of white paper. 



The saving of melon-seeds is an important part of the duty 

 of the cultivator, as much future disappointment will occur, 

 should the seeds of different sorts be mixed or substituted for 

 each other. The individual who is particular in the flavor of 

 his melons, will act judiciously, when he cuts a fruit to his 

 mind, to save the seeds. It is from fruit of the earliest crops 

 that seeds should be saved, as by that means there is less 

 chance of the sort being impregnated by any other of less 

 merit ; as in the early part of the season, the operation of im- 

 pregnation is necessary to be done by the cultivator, and that 

 operation being performed from flowers in the same frame, and 

 possibly fi'om the same plant, there is less risk of the seeds be- 

 coming hebridized at that time than at a later period of the year, 

 when bees and other insects are flying from flower to flower, 

 and carrying the fertilizing dust of the male flower to the 

 female. As the seeds are selected from one or more fruit, 

 but which, for greater certainty, should be kept separate, they 

 should be carefully washed in clean water, allowing those 

 seeds which swim upon the surface of the water to float ofi^, 

 reserving such only as sink to the bottom. These, when suf- 

 ficiently dry, should be packed up in papers, the seeds of 

 each fi'uit put up separately, correctly labeled, their name, 

 size, quality, when sown, when cut, and any other observa- 

 tion of interest written upon the packet, together with the 

 year of their growth. Melon-seeds improve by age, and 

 should not be sown, if it can be avoided, under two years old. 

 They will retain their vegetating properties for twenty years 

 or more. If seeds of the growth of last season be sown, they 

 for the most part produce plants of very gi'oss habits, and will 

 not be so fruitful, but grow more to vines than fruit. 



To obviate this disadvantage, when older seeds cannot be 

 procured, the seeds may be worn in the pocket, near ihe body, 

 for some weeks previously to sowing, which will have the 

 effect of fully maturing them. 



