MEL 
MEL 
to provide successional crops both 
earlier and later ; the difference in their 
management is, however, only such as 
difference in season will make apparent 
to the commonest capacity. The Melon 
is naturally a more robust plant than its 
ally, the cucumber, and so far as grow¬ 
ing is concerned, of much easier manage¬ 
ment ; indeed, plants of the Melon 
might be kept with ease where cucum¬ 
bers would perish; and from this it 
might be inferred that their fruit should 
be produced at an earlier period is usual, 
and so it might, was it not for the ab¬ 
sence of sufficient sun-heat to give the 
requisite flavour to the fruit in its ripen¬ 
ing process : it could be had in a green 
state at any time much easier than its 
relative, but then in winter it would be 
useless, and hence the reason that we 
have to wait till April and May for its 
maturity. On this account it is not ad¬ 
visable to begin the cultivation of the 
season’s crop of Melons before the be¬ 
ginning of Eebruary; these will, under 
good management and a propitious 
season, produce ripe fruit by the end of 
April, and a bed made up successively 
in each month till July, will give a con¬ 
tinued supply throughout the summer 
and autumn. 
Melons are usually grown either in 
common hot-bed frames or pits, artifi¬ 
cially heated by means of fermenting 
material, such as fresh stable-dung, or a 
circulation of hot water; the latter, in 
this as in all other cases, is far prefer¬ 
able, because of its greater regularity, 
more certain and manageable, with half 
the labour, than can be the best of ordi¬ 
nary hot-beds, and its consequent eco¬ 
nomy, especially for the earliest crops, 
when everything depends on a steady 
continued application of the requisite 
amount of heat. The seed of melons 
will vegetate at a very great age; we 
have grown plants reared from some 
known to be nineteen years old, and it 
is generally preferred when saved for 
three or four years. It should be sown 
in pots of light rich earth, and shifted 
singly into small ones, as soon as the 
rough leaves appear. A temperature of 
65° or 70° will grow the young plants in 
the best manner, and when they have 
attained two or three true leaves, they 
will be in fit condition for final planting. 
The mould forming the bed intended to 
receive them should consist ot a rich 
holding loam, lightened just where the 
plants are to be first stationed with a 
little leaf-mould, that their young fibres 
may be encouraged to enter it freely. 
The Melon is a gross feeder, and from 
the number and size of the leaves.on a 
fnll-grown plant, it is evident that a 
plentiful supply of food will be required, 
and hence the advantage of employing 
stiff loam, which absorbs and retains 
more moisture for a longer period than 
any lighter soil possibly can: the depth 
of soil, whether it is placed over a com¬ 
mon dung-bed, or if the warmth is sup¬ 
plied by a hot-water apparatus, should 
not, in either case, be less than a foot or 
exceed eighteen inches, and the whole 
may be placed in the frame at once, or 
added at intervals, as convenience may 
dictate. The temperature of a newly- 
planted bed should average 80° at bot¬ 
tom or among the soil, with a surface 
heat of 65° at night, rising to 75° or 
80° in the day. Of course a propor¬ 
tionate amount of moisture must be 
present, and the best evidence of the 
most desirable quantity will be given in 
a deposit of dew-drops round the edges 
of the foliage, when the lights are un¬ 
covered in the morning; so long as this 
is observed, and it is afterwards dried off 
in the course of the day, the cultivator 
may rest assured his plants are progress¬ 
ing favorably. The vine or stem should 
not be stopped till it has grown . nearly 
to the extent of space allotted it, and 
has begun to throw out lateral branches ; 
it is these that will bear the future fruit, 
and as soon as female blossoms are ex¬ 
panded, they should be carefully fertilized 
with the pollen from the male flowers. 
They are easily known one from the other, 
by tiie embryo fruit attached to the former. 
Male flowers are usually produced first; 
those which open before there is a pro¬ 
bability of the expansion of the. other 
class, may be taken off to economise the 
vigour of the plants. When fruit is 
beginning to swell, the shoot on which 
