208 
THE FLORIST. 
As I always grow Cucumbers both on dung and in brick pits through 
the winter, the expense and trouble of a seed bed for Melons is saved, 
by using one of the Cucumber frames, which answers equally as well 
for that purpose. I sow the early Melon seeds the first week in 
January, and place the seed pots as near the glass of the frame as I 
can. In eight or nine days after sowing, when the seed-leaves are 
fully expanded, I put my Melon plants into small pots of five inches 
diameter, three plants into a pot, and when they have made the second 
or third rough leaf, I stop them. These plants, if they have been duly 
attended to, will have filled the pots with roots, and be fit for turning 
out into the Melon frame by the sixth or seventh of February. 
I generally line my pits a week or ten days before the plants are fit 
to put out, always using for my linings quite fresh dung, which I 
.prefer, not only because the expense and trouble of preparing the dung 
in the usual mode is saved, but because it loses much of its strength in 
the preparation; all danger from the steam of it may be avoided by 
proper attention in the gardener or his assistant. For the same reason, 
when I renew my linings, or add to them, I also invariably employ 
fresh dung. 
When the heat from my first linings comes up, I treat the frame 
exactly in the same way, as I do after the plants are ridged out in it, 
not only in giving air but in covering it, and watering the flues, as 
hereafter described. 
In introducing the compost into the frames, I first spread a slight 
covering of it evenly over the surface of the ashes, and then place one 
good barrowful in a heap under the centre of each light; when the heaps 
become warm, I form the hills in the middle of each, bringing their 
tops to within seven or eight inches of the glass, the mould of the hills 
being moderately pressed together with the hand, so that the roots of 
the plants may work freely through it. 
Whenever the roots of the plants appear through the hills I add a 
covering about an inch thick of the compost, and this application of 
fresh compost becomes necessary soon after the Melons are ridged out, 
and continues so from time to time, until the beginning of March, when 
the surface of the pit, up to the inner edge of the flue, will be almost 
covered with the additional mould. The flues also will be ultimately 
covered in part with mould, but it should not be filled up fully against 
the frame, but ought to slope downwards, towards the bottom of it, on 
every side. 
The due management of forcing the early Melons consists in the 
attention which is paid to the regulation of the heat, the admission of 
air, and the covering of the frames. 
Each three-light frame is covered at night in the following manner : 
a good clean large mat is laid lengthways over the lights, which covers 
the glass, and keeps the whole clean ; then follows a regular layer of 
hay, thick in proportion to the heat in the linings and the temperature 
of the night, and over the hay, for each light, is placed a single mat 
(three mats to each frame), which is properly and securely fastened by 
nails, taking care that no part of it hangs over the sides or ends of the 
frame. 
