THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
August 14. 
348 
MELON CULTURE. 
I will now advert to the particulars of this Melon- 
pit, because it so happens this case is merely a type of 
some dozen more that require a hint in the way of— be¬ 
ware to expect too much from certain circumstances, 
such as the mere supply of a hot-water pipe for top-heat, 
drying the atmosphere, &c.; all very nice, if too much is 
not expected from it. 
The pit, as already seen, is sixteen feet by eight feet, 
divided into partitions, and is three-and-a-half feet in 
height at the front, higher behind, two feet out of the 
three-and-a-half being sunk in the ground, and no 
means of giving heat from the outside. It strikes me, 
in answer to the various questions— 
1st That to commence Melons in if arc’ll, there is 
not a sufficiency of depth of pit to admit a sufficiency 
of fermenting matter to keep up a healthy bottom-heat 
until the Melons approach maturity, and that unskil¬ 
fully managed, the pipe for top-heat may be more pre¬ 
judicial than otherwise. I wish this latter idea to be 
thoroughly understood, because some of our readers are 
apt to attach something like miraculous powers to the 
mere presence of a hot-water pipe, and make many a 
gardener-sigh after his dung-beds and frames. Allowing, 
at the best, eighteen inches for soil and top room, there 
would only be two feet in front, and, perhaps, a foot 
more behind, for sweet fermenting matter. Now, to 
supply a kindly bottom-heat for Melons, commencing in 
March, and with no assistance from linings, and the 
cold earth outside acting as carriers away of the heat, 
I should like to have from three to four feet of dung 
and leaves well sweetened, or from two-and-a-half to 
three feet of good tan, if used separately, well turned, 
aired, and somewhat dried, so as to secure a steady, 
instead of a blazing heat. £ would dispense with a foot 
of this tan, and eighteen inches of fermenting matter, 
were I to commence in April ; and to those with limited 
means, the first and secoud week of that month is 
early enough for securing good Melons with but 
little trouble. If there was a top-heat water-pipe, it 
would then only be wanted on extra cold, gloomy 
days. 
Our corespondent may ask, as another correspondent 
! lately asked, privately, how it was possible the liot- 
! water pipe might act prejudicially? With something 
like two feet of sweet tan, and rather more fermenting 
dung in a sweet state, you will have enough of heat 
for the Melons as first in March ; and by means of the 
water-pipe, you keep up the temperature to from 70° 
j to 78° during the day, and from 00° and upwards at 
j night. By-and-by the heat at the bottom declines; you 
use your pipe-heat to keep up the temperature; this 
j does not warm the soil as the rays striking through the 
glass do; the air is also likely, even with care, to get too 
dry in fine weather, or, if evaporating-pans are used, to 
become too loaded with moisture in dull weather. In 
the first case, you pay court to his majesty the Red 
Spider; and in both, but especially the latter, you en¬ 
courage an extension of the shoots without a correspond¬ 
ing root-action, and the consequence is, that if the 
shoots do not become weak and unhealthy, the fruit 
i either refuses to set, or will not swell freely, work your 
I surface-pipe as freely as you may. In such circum¬ 
stances, possessing merely the command of surface- 
heat, I have found, in my own experience, and I have 
noticed the same thing in the practice of some of 
my friends, that such early Melons would do little 
but expand into leaf, and a forest of small, not over- 
robust shoots; and that these same plants have after¬ 
wards produced a good, nay, a very fine crop, when, 
owing to the sun gaining strength in May and June, 
and a sufficiency of heat was procured without any 
necessity for using the surface heating-pipe; in other 
words, all went as well as could be, when the reciprocal 
action between roots and tops was restored, by both 
getting the requisite amount of temperature. But, be 
it observed, that in these cases a similar result would 
have been arrived at, and a great saving in disappoint¬ 
ment and lost labour effected, if the Melon plants had 
been turned out six weeks later. One gentleman, to 
whom I assigned these reasons as causes of failure in 
getting early Melons, in exactly similar circumstances, 
has had trenches cut down by the sides of his pit, as 
deep, rather deeper, than the pit inside; and by means 
of linings, kept up the requisite amount of bottom-heat j 
; from 70° to 80°; and since then there has been no diffi- 
! culty whatever, while the use of the pipe enables him to j 
give air more freely, and keep a dry atmosphere when j 
desirable. 
Another correspondent has suggested that there seems 
some discrepancy between these ideas and the growing j 
of Melons successfully in pots ; “ these pots, as in your | 
| case, often standing exposed on curbs, platforms, &c.” 
But I see no discrepancy, but rather confirmation strong. 
In addition to the roots being less likely to get into a 
I soil sour and saturated and cold, by giving the requisite 
I waterings in the early part of the day, it will be seldom 
that the soil in the pots will be lower in temperature 
than the atmosphere of the house. At any-rate, when 
the pots stood elevated in a house, and when I used to 
grow Melons rather largely, I never observed those in pots 
! suffering, as those I have mentioned, from deficiency of 
I bottom-heat, when planted out in a bedinthe usual way. 
I recollect an instance in point, and in a pit very similar 
. to our correspondent’s. There was plenty of piping to 
keep up the requisite amount of temperature, but there 
w'ere no means of getting that heat below the shallow' 
bed of fermenting matter, so as to act directly on the 
roots. Next season the fermenting matter was dispensed 
with altogether, the Melons were put out in large pots, 
and set not on the floor, but on the top of other pots 
turned topsy-turvy; a rough trellis was made by taking 
strings from rafter to rafter, to which the Melon shoots 
I w'ere applied, and nothing could have succeeded better; 
| the only drawback w r as the amount of fuel necessary to 
keep up the heat, a matter of importance to all not 
! near a coal pit or close to a railway station. In this 
case, it will at once be seen that the same stimulus was 
given to roots and shoots, a matter, I believe, of first- 
rate importance to the producer of good, early Melons. 
I next answer the other questions in a few words. 
A single pipe, four inches diameter, round the pit 
would be sufficient for top heat. Either so placed, or 
as a flow and return in front, it would grow Melons 
without bottom-heat, as I have mentioned for pots, 
after the middle of April. To commence in March, 
you would require two for surface and two for bottom- 
; heat. The pipes for top-heat may be one foot below 
the front-wall plate, and those lor bottom-heat low 
enough to admit of six inches of clinkers over them 
before placing on the fermenting matter and soil. 
! For Melons and Cucumbers grown with bottom-heat, 
from hot-water, I prefer having no fermenting matter 
whatever, as the plants are too gross when the roots 
reach it. As to the mode of doing this, each mode 
suggested has its advantages and disadvantages, as has 
been previously discussed. Taking two flow-pipes for 
top-heat, and returning them under the bed for bottom- 
heat is the most simple mode. Sometimes you might 
want bottom-heat when the weather was such that you 
had rather be without top-heat; but any danger here is 
easily obviated by keeping evaporating pans on the 
pipes, and giving a greater portion of air. This incon¬ 
venience would be remedied by having a pipe all round, 
or a flow and return for top-heat, and another flow and 
return for bottom-heat; and you can plug up either at 
the cistern, as desirable. You will thus have an addi- 
