206 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ March 18, 1886. 
Bize the young Melons may ba planted out. It is not half 
the trouble to raise plants later in the season, for the seed 
can be sown in 5 or 6-inch pots and the seedlings placed 
s i n gjy when ready into 4-inch pots, and from these planted 
out in the soil prepared for them. I advocate planting Melons 
in a small stata when the season has advanced, but the first 
plants grow more rapidly plunged in the warm manure than 
they would planted out. When a constant succession of ripe 
fruit is required, say from May until the end of October, a 
little seed may with safety be sown once a month until the 
beginning of July. 
At the planting-out time it is necessary to consider what 
system of cultivation is to be practised. There are three— 
namely, the extension, the modified extension, and the re¬ 
stricted systems. In order to carry out the extension system 
successfully one or two plants only should be allotted to fill 
the whole or part of the trellis of the house, according to the 
space at the disposal of the cultivator. If the house is not 
large one plant is capable of filling the whole space, and may 
be either at one end or in the centre. Various modes of 
training may be adopted. If planted in the centre the point 
of the plant may be removed when it reaches the first wire, 
or has gained sufficient strength to produce strong lateral 
growths, and two strong shoots may be selected and trained 
horizontally on each side of the stem. These may extend 
along the base as far as desirable, either until they reach the 
ends of the house or the second plant if employed, when the 
points should be again removed. From these horizontal 
shoots train others upright at distances of about 18 inches. 
1.1 can be going on near the centre of the plant, even while 
the horizontal shoots are extending. The shoots first trained 
up the wires will have reached the top before all are really 
started from the base, and must be stopped as well as the 
first laterals that are produced, so that an even crop of female 
flowers will appear at one time. With many varieties it is 
very difficult to get the fruit to swell unless all the flowers 
have been fertilised and have commenced swelling evenly from 
the first. 8ueh free-swelling and free-fruiting varieties as 
Conqueror of Europe, Eastnor Castle, and others may be set 
as soon as the plants have attained fair strength, for they will 
swell fruits set at different times, and thus form a long con¬ 
tinuous supply. Another mode of training is to allow the 
laterals to extend horizontally from the central stem. When 
planted at one end of the house adopt the same principle of 
training. In this case the shoots lead away from one side of 
the plant instead of both, as when planted in the centre of 
the space to be filled. 
Although this extension system has been successfully 
carried out there are objections which will prevent its general 
adoption. First, fruits cannot be produced so quickly as by 
restriction. Secondly, if a plant grown on this system should 
by any means be attacked by canker or other diseases, the 
whole of the crop of fruit will be lost; whereas if, as in other 
systems, more plants are under culture, a part at least of 
these may escape. Thirdly, it is impossible to maintain by 
the extension system an unbroken supply of ripe fruit as 
can be done by the one referred to above. 
The modified system of extension is more generally 
practised, and differs chiefly in the number of plants re¬ 
quired to fill the house. Under this method one plant to 
each light is all that is requisite, while the training, so far as 
space permits, is nearly the same. Four leading shoots are 
taken up the wires until they nearly reach the top. The first 
laterals produced towards the base of each of these shoots are 
stopped at the first leaf, and generally produce female flowers 
on the sub-laterals by the time the first laterals towards the 
op are developed. By this means there is no difficulty in 
setting the number of fruits required on each plant about the 
same time, so that they will swell evenly together. Unless 
large numbers of ripe fruits are required about a certain time 
it is not desirable to place out too many plants at one time, 
or it is difficult to maintain a regular supply. If three or four 
only are planted a succession of fruits on them can be 
insured by stopping the whole of the first laterals and setting 
the fruit on the sub-laterals towards the top of the plants. 
This system is a reliable one and may be practised with every 
certainty of success. 
(To be continued.) 
REMARKS ON SOWING VEGETABLE SEEDS. 
Each year that I open the seed hamper I invariably call to 
mind my thoughts on the first occasion this happened. The 
seeds were ordered by my predecessor, and a much larger 
quantity than was needed came to hand. It would have been 
bad enough if I had made out my own seed order, but the array 
that met my bewildered gaze quite upset my nerves, and made 
me wish that I was still a foreman and not wholly responsible 
for maintaining a regular and continuous supply of vegetables. 
However, I contrived to surmount the difficulty, and since that 
time I have become less and less frightened at the many packets 
of seeds received, and it should be added have gradually reduced 
both the number of sorts to be relied on as well as the actual 
quantity of seeds necessary for maintaining the supply. After 
the decision as to the sorts and quantities to be ordered, the 
greatest difficulty with the young or inexperienced gardener, 
amateur or otherwise, is to decide when each should be sown or 
planted, and it is upon this subject I propose to offer a few 
remarks. It is true nearly every catalogue, as well as the 
gardening and other periodicals, contain much useful information 
for those needing it, but it is possible to consult too many 
oracles, and I do not believe in the truth of the old proverb, “ In 
the multitude of councillors there is wisdom,” simply because 
horticulturists must necessarily differ so much in every case 
depending upon circumstances. 
Peas. —1 commence with Peas, for the simple reason that the 
time has arrived for sowing these where the ground is in good 
working order. It is a great mistake to sow sound seed at all 
thickly, especially of the branching sorts of Peas. Crowded 
rows afford a glut of pods, whereas the thinner rows are much 
more continuous bearing, and therefore the most profitable The 
early blue and white round-seeded sorts are not of branching 
habit, and these may well be sown more thickly, or say in drills 
G inches wide and about 2 inches apart each way. Instead of 
sowing several of these early sorts, none of which is very pro¬ 
fitable or good in quality, I prefer to rely principally upon 
American Wonder and William I. The former is now cheap 
and may be grown in pots, frames, at the foot of sunny walls, 
between the rows of William 1. instead of Spinach, or on an 
open sunny border, the rows being disposed about 15 inches 
apart. Being a Marrow Pea it is unwise to sow very early or 
before the first week in March, and even later if the ground 
happened to be wet and heavy. As it precedes the round-seeded 
sorts it is apt to spoil the palate for the latter, but that is a fault 
to be condoned. Our ground being cold and heavy early sowing 
is out of the question, and we find it advisable to sow a quantity 
of William I. in boxes about the end of February, placing these 
in a Peach house and planting out in a warm position when 
about 3 inches high. These, with a little extra shelter at the 
outset, invariably yield gatherings before the earliest sown in 
the open ground. Later on, if there are failures in the rows of 
choicer sorts, directly this is discovered seed is at once sown 
of the same variety in boxes placed in gentle heat. After 
being duly hardened the seedlings are carefully shaken out 
from the soil and dibbled in where required, and not unfrequently 
succeeding as well as those sown in the rows This plan may 
not be necessary this season, but is mentioned in case blanks 
occur. Mice are enemies to the Pea grower, but if the seed is 
moistened and coated with red lead it is not liable to be inter¬ 
fered with. William I. sown on a warm border or in the open 
early in March will form a good succession to those transplanted, 
or a close succession to one of the many variously named extra- 
early round-seeded sorts. Early in March, or as soon as the 
ground is in good order, is a good time to sow a row or more of 
a good second early successional sort, such for instance as Tele¬ 
phone and Criterion, or Stratagem and Wordsley Wonder, the 
same sorts being sown again directly these are showing through 
the ground. This plan of sowing two sorts at a time, one being 
earlier than the other, at about fortnightly intervals, up till the 
end of June or early in July, rarely fails to maintain an even 
supply unless poverty of the soil or drought induces premature 
cropping. Good second early sorts are Telegraph, Telephone, 
Paragon, Stratagem, Nelson’s Vanguard, and Bijou, these being 
closely followed by Criterion, Huntingdonian, Dr. Maclean, 
Wordsley Wonder, Nelson’s Vanguard, Hairs’ Dwarf Mammoth, 
Gladiator, Sutton’s Satisfaction, Webb’s Challenger, Duke of 
