184 
THE AMATEUR’S KITCHEN GARDEN. 
■weeks at least from the date of the sowing of the seed. We 
have in favourable seasons planted out within three weeks, 
but it is not well to move them until they are somewhat 
stocky. 
It must here be observed that melons are usually grown in 
pots until ready for the fruiting-bed, and there can be no 
objection to the practice where there are skilful hands to 
carry it out. But the risks are many in pot-culture, as com- 
pared with the plan we recommend, and the bed system 
occasions less trouble. It is not at all uncommon to find 
young melon-plants in pots quite beset with red spider, owing 
to a little irregularity or neglect in air-giving and watering, 
whereas, when grown in a bed from the first, it is altogether 
unusual for fly or spider to touch them, for they are robust in 
growth, rooting freely, and if the bed should get a little dry, 
they do not soon feel it. Another remark must be made as to 
pinching out the point of the leader. When raised in pots, it 
is well not to stop them at all until they have been planted 
out at least a week, and then if they are stopped they make a 
nice growth from the lower eyes, and soon spread over the 
hillocks. But when raised in a bed they are so strong from 
the first that the stopping may be done earlier, and the 
result will be a gain of time in the formation of fruiting 
wood. 
The Fruiting-bed should be got ready in time, and should 
be formed with a good body of manure, that has been two or 
three times turned, with good capacious frames to cover it. 
When melon growing begins in January, the fruiting-bed will 
require to be lined as the heat declines, to maintain a proper 
temperature ; but if we begin in March, sun-heat will finish 
the crop, if it is well started with a big sound bed of stable 
manure, that has been in some degree fermented, so as to 
produce a sweet and steady heat. In a sunless season, how- 
ever, the heat must be kept up by linings, for the melon 
requires a bottom heat ranging from 70° to 90°, and an 
atmospheric temperature of 65° to 80°, with a rise of 10° 
during sunshine. 
The usual way of ridging-out is to form a hollow in the bed 
in the centre of each light, and fill these to the surface with 
brickbats, or hollow tiles ; then cover with a turf, grass sides 
downwards, and make a smallish hill of soil for the plants. 
The next thing is to put out two plants to every light, give ? 
