CULTURE OF MELONS. 
243 
was owing to the confinement of the plant to the limited dimensions 
of the pot it grew in. Upon these considerations, I have been indu¬ 
ced to designate this fine fruit a Persian Melon of the Germek fa¬ 
mily, but perhaps, it may have been hybridised with some native 
of Europe. 
Every one who has had experience in the culture of melons, can 
produce this variety in a common frame; but I would recommend 
the use of a brick-flued pit with a hollow chamber, the heated air of 
which, might, as required, be admitted above, by pipes passing 
through the bed of earth. Such a pit I am now erecting, and I 
mean it to combine some of the modern improvements, (so as to in¬ 
clude a steam-chamber,) divested of their expensive concomitants; 
and if I find by experience, that it effects the objects I have in view, 
I will furnish a plan of the erection, and a calculation of the outlay. 
In the spring of last year, 1832, I raised the plant that bore the 
fruit of which I now write, in a small pot netted with hay. In May, 
it was transferred to a large pot containing the chopped turf of a 
sandy -loam, and this pot was plunged nearly to its rim in a bed of 
leaves and littery dung. An external lining of dung from the cow- 
stall and farm-yard, assisted the bed inside, but the bottom heat was 
very trifling at any time. The plant advanced rapidly, and was oc¬ 
casionally watered either with liquid manure or rain-water; it was 
pruned very little, but was stopped at an early period, so as to cause 
it to produce three or four shoots. These were suffered to proceed. 
Not one healthy leaf ivas cut off; and I seize this opportunity to 
caution all growers of melons against, and to deprecate, the thought¬ 
less practice of taking off the healthy and unshaded leaves, upon the 
supposition that they are incumbrances, and useless excrescences, 
injurious, in as much as they darken the fruit, and prevent its at¬ 
taining due maturity. Every healthy leaf has a specific office to per¬ 
form, and a fruit never swells more perfectly, than when it is pro¬ 
tected from the direct solar ray by the genial shade of its own foliage. 
Around the pot, fiat tiles were laid over the bed, (which I ought 
before to have said was covered with a layer of dry sand;) and upon 
one of these tiles the fruit rested. Experience, however, has in¬ 
structed me to recommend the substitution of a sort of cradle, made 
by fastening strips of list to a little wooden-frame with four short 
legs; for on this slightly elastic support, the fruit may repose, se¬ 
cure from damp or pressure, and be occasionally turned, without fear 
of injury. If the plants be grown in pots, the treatment must cor¬ 
respond with that described in my paper upon the Housainee Me¬ 
lon ; but if they be planted in a bed of stout and rich melon earth 
r 3 
