CULTURE OF THE MELON IN BRITISH GARDENS. 



491 



common way to fill a pot three-fourths full of soil, and in that to insert the 

 cuttings under a pane of glass ; and 1 have no doubt, when those that have 

 practised that mode come to see this simple improvement, so much more 

 workmanlike, and applicable not only to melon cuttings, but to all sorts of 

 cuttings, exotic, greenhouse, and hardy, they will feel nowise reluctant to 

 relinquish the old way. The advantages of this mode are, when the cuttings 

 get up to the glass, w^hich they generall}' do before they have struck root, 

 the outer pot can be changed for one a little deeper, and the moist moss serves 

 the twofold purpose of conducting heat and moisture ; and, as the heat of 

 the tan or dung bed will be 80° or 40° above that of the atmosphere of the 

 house or pit (a good tan bed will range about 110° at six inches deep), it 

 will be communicated through the outer pot to the atmosphere around the 

 cuttings, thereby accelerating their striking root : this high atmospheric heat 

 is an advantage possessed in common with the old system over the bell-glass 

 propagating pot, 



1042. Planting out. — Plants being reared, either from seeds or cuttings, 

 healthy and robust, are, let us presume, in 82-sized pots, about nine inches high, 

 with leaves as large as the palm of the hand. The hotbed being made up to 

 within eighteen inches of the glass, and a ridge of loamy turf, mixed with one- 

 fourth its quantity of dung, pulverised to a mould, being laid along the centre 

 of the bed, about twelve or fourteen inches deep, a day or two previous to the 

 planting of the melons, and all fears of offensive steam from the bed or linings 

 being guarded against, the plants may be turned out of the pots along the 

 centre of the ridge, about one foot apart for a bed nine feet wide, or for a 

 six-feet bed about fifteen inches apart, with a fine sweet moist heat, such as 

 could be breathed comfortably, about 75° to 85°. Excess in quantity of 

 heat is not so much to be feared as inferior quality of heat. A strong heat 

 will rarify the au* and cause ventilation ; to facilitate which, a small aperture 

 should be left open, say a quarter of an inch, at the top of every light, and 

 this eighteen or twenty hours out of the twenty-four. The time that I 

 should shut up close, would be at uncovering in the morning (which should 

 be done as soon as it is light) ; and after syringing or steaming them in the 

 evening, when no more air is wanted for the day heat. 



1043. General treatment. — Plants raised from cuttings show fruit with 

 less vine than those reared from seeds ; and this is the best remedy, in con- 

 junction with keeping them rather dry at the roots, for the ever-crying evil, 

 that the " vines have run all over the bed without showing fruit." I 

 should prefer leaving a plant reared from a cutting entire, without stopping, 

 until it shows fruit ; those raised from seed must be topped, as they gener- 

 ally draw up weak and long-jointed, if left entire. I should top them for 

 the first time as soon as they show the rough leaf, and again as they advance, 

 say when they have made two feet of vine, in order to produce fruitful 

 laterals. When fruit appears, they must be carefully managed to prevent 

 sudden atmospheric changes ; and, during the time that they are in flower, 

 water overhead must be dispensed with, and gentle vapour only occasionally 

 raised, to nourish the leaves, for it would be injurious to keep the flowers too 

 moist at this time. Every female blossom must now be carefully impreg- 

 nated ; and, as soon as the fruits are set and beginning to swell, plenty of 

 moisture and a closer atmosphere will be of the greatest service till they are 

 swelled full size, when moisture at the root, and also vapour on the leaves, 

 must be finally dispensed with. As soon as a reasonable number of fruits are 



