294 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
July 21. 
at any suitable distance from the glass. We have had 
very nice ones made of pieces of wood one inch square, 
four longitudinal ones for the size of a light, and two 
end ones, and then the whole spaces thrown into small 
squares, by taking tarred small cord across from one 
longitudinal piece to another. We prefer all such 
trellissing to be in pieces of the size of one light, as 
then the whole arrangement is easily changed, according 
to the crops required. The trellis is a safeguard against 
damping, and, when insects appear, the smoke of 
tobacco, and the syringe, tell more decidedly upon them. 
About fifteen inches from the glass, and from that to 
twenty, will be most suitable at this season. Where 
there is no trellis, the fruit must be carefully supported 
above the ground. 
Watering. —After growth has commenced, the less 
water that will keep the plants in health the better will 
be the fruit. Little should find its way to the surface of 
the bed, even with a trellis, after the first of September. 
Without a trellis, the necessary waterings should be 
given by pouring the liquid into holes, and thus keep¬ 
ing the surface soil dry. After the beginning of August 
avoid putting any within six inches of the main stem. 
In fine days, however, the plants and fruit will be 
benefited with just a slight dewing over the foliage from 
a fine syringe, shutting up early in an afternoon, and 
giving a little air again in the evening. 
Air giving, Shading, and Temperature. —If air is not 
left on all night it should be given early in the morn¬ 
ing. Too much must not be given during the day, as a 
high flavour greatly depends upon a high temperature 
and a dry atmosphere. When growing, keep the atmos¬ 
phere moist; as the fruit approaches maturity, let it 
become dryish. The more sun the plants will stand, the 
better, other things being equal, will be the flavour of the 
fruit. No shading should be given, therefore, unless 
during sudden extremes of weather, from dull to bright. 
Melons that require shading every sunny day, in 
August for instance, might just as well be cut green, 
and used in place of Cucumbers. We have had good 
autumn fruit with a bottom-heat ranging from 70° to 
75°, and 80°; an atmospheric night temperature of 
from 00° to 05°; and a day temperature ranging 
i from 05° in the morning to 90° and 95° at noon. 
; Under such circumstances, the foliage becomes as stiff, 
but also more brittle than glass, as the least touch in a 
careless way will break and disfigure the best of the 
leaves. 
I Stopping, Training, Setting, Sc. —These, though men- 
' tioned last, will be the matters first demanding attention ; 
and, perhaps, no points in Melon culture are more im- 
I portant. The whole of the treatment we would re- 
| commend here is based chiefly on two facts; the first, 
that a few healthy, largish leaves, exercise a more bene¬ 
ficial elaborating power than a similar space occupied 
with younger and smaller foliage. The second is, that 
the Melon, in no stage of its growth, endures the 
primings and loppings that a Cucumber may be sub- 
| jected to with advantage. This points out the propriety 
of stopping and picking out buds with the point of a 
penknife, or the thumb and finger, instead of having to 
lop branches away with a pruning-knife. Success will 
greatly depend in preventing, rather than removing, 
useless growth. 
Keeping in view, then, that a young Melon plant, 
properly supported, would grow as upright as a Spruce 
Fir, and that from the axil of every leaf on that young 
stem would come a side-shoot, on the laterals of which 
side-shoots fruit is generally formed, we are furnished 
with the guide as to the time and modes of stopping. 
Thus, when w’e wish a plant to fill a light, w r e do not 
stop the plant until it has made some five or six joints, 
so that w r e may have as may leading stems trained 
along the ground. If we have two or three plants 
in a light, two or three stems from each plant will be 
sufficient, and the others must be pinched out when 
they show themselves peeping from the axils of the 
leaves. The same rule holds good when the plants are 
to be trained to a trellis ; only here, as the soil may be 
one or two feet beneath the trellis, the young plant 
should be trained to the requisite height without 
stopping, and every bud below that height should be 
picked out with the point of a penknife, and care should 
then be taken, that, in nipping out the point of the 
shoot, as many small leaves should be left with the 
bud in their axils untouched, as you wish for main 
shoots to train across the allotted space. As soon as 
these shoots are from six to twelve inches in length, 
they should be fastened to the ground with pegs, or to 
the trellis with string; and here the same disbudding 
process must go on again, picking out each bud from 
the axils of the leaves as the shoots advance, until the 
shoots get to within a foot or so of their allotted space, 
when the poiuts of them are nipped out, leaving three 
or four joints with the buds untouched. From these 
buds lateral shoots will spring, most of which will show 
fruit at the first joint, and a few at the second, and some 
fewer may not show at all. As soon as the fruit show’s, 
stop the lateral shoot one joint above the fruit, or close 
to the fruit, for we never found that either mode had 
any advantage over the other. 
By this system it will be perceived that disbudding 
takes the place of cutting and pruning; that the main 
shoots obtain an equal start to secure something liko 
equality of growth ; that most of the lateral shoots show 
fruit about the same time; that thus the fruit on a 
plant set and begin to swell as nearly as possible co- 
temporaneously, a matter of much importance in Melon 
growing, as, if one fruit gets the start very much of the 
rest, it will, ultimately, be too apt to drain all the 
resources of the plant to itself, to the starvation of its 
younger sisters. 
We thought of altogether passing over the “ setting,’’ 
or fecundating process, but w r e can never forget the fact 
of an old jobbing gardener, who had served an appren¬ 
ticeship, and lived under some notable gardeners, 
asking us to explain the difference between the 
male and female flowers, and the how’s, why's, and 
what's about the fecundating process. Now, this may 
meet the eye of a few quite as ignorant. Well, the 
