728 THE PRACTICAL GARDENER. \^May, 



Some gardeners place much dependance upon the second 

 and often upon a third crop from the same plants, but this is 

 not to be depended upon. The finer kinds of melons will 

 seldom produce more than one good crop of fruit ; for to have 

 the fruit in perfection, the vines are generally killed, or so 

 much weakened by the sparing supply of water given them 

 during the ripening off of the fruit, that they seldom break 

 sufficiently strong to produce a second, much less a third 

 crop. 



Young plants may be brought forward in the secondary 

 frames, and when too large to remain uninjured in the pots 

 into which they were originally potted off, they may be trans- 

 planted into small baskets, in which they may remain until 

 the crops be removed from under the frames hitherto occupied 

 with the earliest crops ; and when those are cut, the beds may 

 be renewed, fresh mould put in, and the plants removed into 

 them, still in the baskets, which may be partially cut away, or 

 may remain, as the roots will find sufficient means of escaping 

 into the fresh mould of the bed. A little gentle heat applied, 

 and sufficient air and water administered, will forward these 

 plants into fruit in due time. Such plants will produce better 

 fruit, and with greater certainty, than l)y pruning in and re- 

 generating the old plants from which the crop has been cut. 



Some of the early canteloupe varieties will, however, pro- 

 duce second, and often third crops, by being sufficiently cut 

 in after their first crop has been cut; but these, although 

 extremely well suited, owing to their hardiness and free set- 

 ting, for the most forward crops, are not to be put in com- 

 parison with many more preferable sorts ; which, if treated as 

 above, will produce their fruit in August and September, and 

 although less in number or quantity, will be decidedly supe- 

 rior in flavor. 



Those, however, who prefer to re-establish the old plants 

 for future crops, should shorten in the vines or shoots to a 

 good fresh-looking eye, and thin out all decayed or unhealth) 

 slioots, dead leaves, &c. In cutting, attend to cut an inch or 

 two above the joint from which the fresh shoots are expected 

 to issue, and bruise the end of the shoots so cut between the 



