JULY. 
207 
These are all remarkable and fine, are good in character, and nearly all 
fair growers. Mr. Turner, of Slough, Mr. Lightbody, of Falkirk, or 
Messrs. Holland and Dodwell, of Manchester, will supply good plants. 
The former is more convenient for southern, and the others for northern 
growers. 
Beal , June 22. D. 
EARLY MELONS. 
Melons, which I exhibited in the first week in May, were produced 
by a mode of cultivation which I have successfully adopted for several 
years. The following details may perhaps enable others, who may 
desire to pursue the same plan, to obtain equal success. 
I grow my early Melons under three light frames, which are eleven 
feet long, by four and a half feet wide, two feet deep at the back, and 
fourteen inches in front: the lights of these frames are glazed with the 
best crown glass, well fitted in the laps and puttied ; they are made so 
perfectly close that no air can gain admittance into the frames, except 
when I give it by raising the lights. 
Each frame is placed upon the top of a hollow brick pit, which is 
four feet deep inside : the lower part (about ten inches) is solid, 
and is sunk in the earth, the remainder is a flue carried entirely round 
the pit; the hollow part of the flue is three inches wide in the clear, 
and the walls of it are formed of four-inch work, that is, of bricks laid 
flat: the inner wall is well bedded with good mortar, and pointed 
within and without so perfectly, that the steam of the dung which is 
introduced into the flue cannot penetrate into the inside of the pit; the 
outer wall of the flue is constructed with open brick-work, which 
admits the steam of dung linings into the flue; the top of the flue is 
covered with eleven-inch tiles, extending over the hollow part, and both 
the side walls and this are also rendered, by means of mortar, imper¬ 
vious to steam ; the frame is placed on the external wall of the flue, and 
stands exactly flush with the outer face of the brickwork. The bottoms 
of the pits are kept dry by means of drains. 
Previous to working a frame, the hollow inside of the pit, which is 
nine feet two inches long, by two feet eight inches wide, and four feet 
deep, is filled with loose tiles, or brick rubbish, to within eighteen 
inches of the top of the flue ; above this is placed a layer, about a foot 
thick, of short prepared dung, nearly cold, and then another layer of 
six inches of very rotten dung ; both of these are well and closely 
trodden, so as to prevent their sinking afterwards, and over the whole, 
level with the top of the flue, is placed a floor of coal ashes, laid quite 
smooth, and half an inch thick, which prevents any worms, which may 
be in the dung, getting through into the mould above it while the frame 
is in work. 
The compost used by me in growing early Melons is made of three 
parts of well prepared rich loam, and one part of very rotten dung; 
these are well mixed together and laid in a ridge to meliorate, six 
weeks or two months before it is wanted for use. 
