JUNE. 
169 
pressed into the pots or beds, the roots will soon penetrate it in all 
directions under a suitable bottom heat of about 80°, which should be 
regularly maintained during the whole growth of the plant; while the 
atmospheric heat should range from 65° to 70° night temperature 
to 80° and even 85° during bright weather by day. 
Taking the management of the first crop, the sowing of which I 
detailed above, the plants should be tolerably strong and healthy by 
the middle of January, and as the soil in the pots will then have become 
warm, they may be at once planted one in each fruiting pot. For 
growing Melons in houses or pits on a trellis, they should not be 
stopped, but carefully tied to a stick reaching from the pot to the trellis, 
which when the plant reaches, train it in a single vine the length of the 
space allotted it, and then pinch out the point of the shoot; the plant 
will by this have become strong, and therefore the lateral shoots thrown 
out by stopping the leader will, in all probability, show fruit at two 
or three joints from the main stem. Train each lateral right and left, 
and when the young fruit is perceptible, stop the shoot at one joint 
beyond or above the fruit. Where any of these lateral shoots fail in 
showing a fruit stop them back to one or two joints, for the chances of 
a show from the second lateral produced, and also this will allow more 
room and light to those which have fruit on them. Three fruits will be 
plenty to allow to swell off on each plant. It is also desirable that they 
should not all be of the same age, and therefore when selecting the 
fruit to remain, keep the one which set the first, next the latest, and 
then an intermediate one; this will give a succession of fruit. The 
usual routine of cultivation which follows will be to mind the atmospheric 
temperature, above all guarding against sudden changes or draughts of 
cold air; a gentle circulation should at all times, even by night, be 
maintained, increasing it gradually as the state of the weather by day 
permits. Atmospheric moisture should also be supplied by frequent 
dampings of the floors, surface of the beds, and occasionally over the 
foliage after the fruit is set, but this must be applied with caution, as the 
leaves are very susceptible of injury, when water is thrown violently 
against them ; and on no account, either by the syringe or in tying and 
stopping the vines, should the large primary leaves be injured if possible. 
Lateral growths, as they appear, will be pinched out, and the fruit, as 
it begins to swell, should be suspended in net bags, or on a small board 
fastened to the trellis. Water will be required frequently to pot-plants, 
using liquid manure more or less, according as the vigour of the plants 
seem to require it. I do not advocate Melon culture in pots, excepting 
for the earliest crop ; and therefore for successional crops, the open bed of 
soil is to be preferred. When Melons are cultivated in this manner, it 
is a usual practice, and particularly when grown in dung frames, to 
make a hill or mound of earth the requisite height, on which to transfer 
the young plants, and afterwards to fill the surrounding space with 
compost as the plants increase in growth. Without offering any decided 
opposition to this plan, which has its advantages in dung frames, I 
see no good to be obtained where the body of soil is heated either by 
hot water pipes or fermenting materials, with hot water to supply top- 
heat, &c.; therefore the soil may at once be filled in, treading it firm. 
