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FORCING PEAS IN HOT-BEDS. 
raised too near each other. Those who wish to forward 
Melons, may prepare a hot-bed in March or April, to raise 
plants in ; the beds may be formed and the plants managed 
in precisely the same manner as is directed for Cucumbers. 
If the ridging system be adopted, and a hand-glass applied 
to each hill, Melons may be obtained one month earlier than 
the usual time. 
Gardeners raising Melons for the supply of city markets, 
may gratify the public taste early in the season, by pursuing 
the forwarding, if not the forcing system. Ridges may be 
prepared in the following manner : In April or May, a trench 
may be dug in a warm border, about two feet deep and 
three wide, and of sufficient length for as many hand-glasses 
as are intended to be employed, allowing three feet for every 
hill. Some good heating manure should be laid in the pits, 
managed the same as a common hot-bed ; to this must be 
added good rich mould to the depth of eight or ten inches 
for the plants to grow in ; as soon as the mould is warm, the 
seedlings may be planted, three plants in each hill, after 
which the hand-glasses should be set on, and shaded. After 
the plants have taken root and began to grow, the glasses 
should be raised in fine days, and propped up so as to admit 
fresh air ; and as the warm weather progresses, they may be 
taken off in the middle of fine days so as to harden the 
plants gradually to the weather ; and by the latter end of 
May they may be left to nature. 
FORCING PEAS IN HOT-BEDS. 
The best kinds of Peas to force, are those that are the 
most dwarfish, and the seed is better for being two or three 
years old, as they will bear earlier, and make less straw. 
Peas run less to vine by being transplanted, than when they 
are sown where they are to remain ; the plants may be raised 
in a gentle hot-bed, either in the earth of the bed, or in pots 
