CULTIVATION OF THE MELON. 



fresh ; an overdose will cause the fruit to split, but the flavour 

 will never be first-rate unless the foliage is kept thoroughly 

 healthy. The fruit should be suspended in a bit of netting, or 

 on a thin piece of board, which should tilt towards one side or 

 have a hole in the middle to prevent water lodging under the 

 fruit. The fruit will be ready to cut when it emits a pleasant 

 smell and cracks round the stem, and Melons are generally 

 found at their best two days after being cut, although some sorts 

 will keep well for a week or more. 



The mid- season crops that are planted out in beds, and have 

 the advantage of long light and summer sun, will require a 

 greater depth of soil to grow in than those which are grown 

 earlier or later in the year. The ridges or mounds in which they 

 are planted should be 16 inches deep, and the rest of the bed, 

 when earthed over, about 4 inches less. They will also take 

 much more water — not given in driblets, but in sufficient quantity 

 to moisten the whole bed ; and if then top-dressed with old mush- 

 room-bed manure, it will prevent evaporation and help to nourish 

 the crop. In bright weather {except when the flowers are being 

 fertilised, and again when the fruit is ripening) always syringe 

 the foliage in the afternoon when shut up with a high tempera- 

 ture from sun-heat ; do not drive the water on so roughly as 

 almost to make holes in the leaves, but endeavour to make the 

 water fall like a gentle shower or heavy dew. If the plants are 

 healthy when the fruit is cut, by being pruned back a little and 

 encouraged with a moist warm atmosphere, they will often bear 

 a second crop very little inferior to the first, but many prefer to 

 have a set of strong plants in 10-inch pots ready to fix to the 

 trellis as soon as the other lot are cleared out. 



Melons are not subject to disease if kept growing vigorously, 

 with their shoots trained over a trellis in a suitable house. 

 Gumming and canker are brought on by pouring water on to the 

 stem, especially if it be used cold, or by having manure in the 

 soil in which the plants are growing. It is generally in cold and 

 badly- ventilated pits that these diseases are found. 



