MELONS. 
123 
the flower-pot. The plants receive one good watering after being 
planted, but never any more inside the collars. The borders should 
be watered whenever they require it, sometimes as often as three 
times a day, when the plants are in full vigour and the weather hot and 
sunny. 
As the plants grow the main stems are trained to within a foot of the 
top of the trelHs and then stopped by pinching out the points, and before 
they have finished growing the stems reach to the top of it. The lateral 
shoots between the cotyledons and first wire of the trellis are 
rubbed oft", and the others trained to the wires and stopped at the 
Fig. 33.— Melon 'Golden Orange.' 
second leaf beyond the female flower, and all the sub laterals are stopped 
at the first leaf, and the tendrils pinched off as soon as they appear on 
the vine. 
Some garden calendars of the present day recommend that the flowers 
should not be fertilised before a sufficient number are out at the same 
time to form a crop. I think it makes little difference when they are 
fertilised. I make it a rule to poUinise the first female flower that opens, 
and continue to do so as they open ; and I find no difficulty in the plants 
setting a good crop which swells off freely and ripens satisfactorily. If 
more fraits set than the plants can support — which is often the case^ — 
