THE FORCING GARDEN. 



749 



Many excellent cultivators never uncover their houses, and 

 indeed the first horticultural architect of the day agrees with 

 them in that opinion. In the many excellent houses erected 

 from his designs, the sashes are made permanent, and venti- 

 lators are fixed in the front and back walls. 



Vines thus early forced, will ripen their wood sufficiently in 

 the open air, without the aid of glass at this season ; but those, 

 which are late in ripening their fruit, should have the glass 

 kept on at least until the wood be sufficiently ripened. Some 

 persons are advocates for entirely exposing them, while others 

 advocate the glass being kept on. The end aimed at by both, 

 is the attainment of fully ripened wood ; and if that be com- 

 pletely effected, it matters little by which of the means it is 

 accomplished. Those, who merely keep the glass on for the sake 

 of saving the flues and decorative parts of the structure, often 

 sacrifice a more important object than that which they gain. 

 All decorations in culinary hot-houses should be dispensed 

 with, excepting what are necessary and useful, for in such 

 structures that only is in good taste, which is of real utility. In 

 the green-house, conservatory, and tropical plant-stoves, fancy 

 or taste may be certainly consulted ; but the plainer the houses 

 are which are intended to bring fruits early to maturity, or to 

 perfection at a later season, the better ; provided they be got 

 up in a respectable and neat manner. We have seldom found 

 injury done to the flues by being thus left exposed by the re- 

 moval of the sashes, and never to such an extent as would 

 induce us to prefer keeping them on. 



The crop being gathered, there remains nothing more to 

 be said upon this subject till October, when it will be again 

 mentioned. Where there are other grape-houses coming in, 

 in succession, their management will be exactly such as laid 

 down in the preceding months. 



\ 



MELONS FOR LATE CROPS. 



Melons for crops to ripen in November and the beginning 

 of October, may be obtained by growing them in flued pits, 

 such as are used for nursing young pine-plants, or in pits of 

 any ordinary construction, having pipes laid in them for the 



