TUB AMATEUR’S KITCHEN GARDEN. 
191 
If the weather is kind you will have melons, certainly not 
otherwise. A period of cold may be tided over by letting the 
•cloches down within an inch or so of the ground, and putting 
old lights aslope to screen the shoots that show the forwardest 
fruits, but for the most part the elements have you at their 
mercy, and if you do not cut ripe fruit before September is 
out you will not cut any at all. As the season may smash up 
when a good crop is in want of only a little more time to 
finish it, you may cut the nearly ripe fruit with some length 
of stem attached, and ripen it in a warm greenhouse. The 
instant that the stalk of a melon begins to crack aw^ay from 
the fruit the ripening process is completed, and the melon 
should be eaten. 
The hillock system may succeed so well that, having gained 
experience thereby, you may desire to extend the practice. 
The next step therefore will be to develop the ridge system. 
In place of hillocks make ridges, running north and south, 
put the plants four feet apart on the ridge, and the ridges far 
enough apart to allow plenty of room for traffic between. It 
will be well to protect with cloches, as advised for hillock 
culture ; but miniature span-roof frames or A pieces, fitted 
with glass with a span of twenty inches, would be preferable, 
as protecting the whole line of the ridge, and they could be 
set on bricks, to raise them to the height required. 
As a matter of course, the hardier kinds of melons are to 
be preferred for this culture, such as Sutton’s Tom Thumb, 
Monro’s Little Heath , Gilbert’s Ostrich Egg , Golden Gem, 
and Achapesnorrischer. 
