I 
can elaborate depends on the breadth of healthy foliage it can expose to* 
the light, and the suitableness of the food with which it is supplied. 
Annual plants, as the melon, prepare, in one season, the organizable 
matter required to perfect their blossoms and fruit. It has been proved 
in England, where the melon is cultivated in hot-beds under glass, that 
the fruit may prove worthless or of excellent quality according to the 
care bestowed in the management of the foliage of the plant. Andrew 
Knight’s melons were so deficient in richness and flavor that he request¬ 
ed his gardener not to plant melons again ; but afterwards, attending, 
more closely to his mode of culture, and that of other gardeners in the 
neighborhood, he thought he saw sufficient cause for the want of flavor 
in the fruit in the w T ant of efficient foliage. To remedy this defect he 
placed his plants at greater distances apart than his gardener had done ; 
the branches were conducted in every direction, so as to expose the 
greatest breadth of foliage to the light, and they were secured in their 
first position by small hooked pegs pressed into the soil ; and water, 
instead of being poured on the leaves, as usual, and which by its weight 
displaced the foliage, was poured on the tiles covering the soil of the 
melon bed. Thus managed “he had the pleasure to see that the foliage 
remained erect and healthy. The fruit also grew with very extraordi¬ 
nary rapidity, ripened in an unusually short time, and acquired a degree 
of perfection which he had never previously seen.” We may, doubtless, 
imitate with advantage this improved method of managing our melon 
plants. The branches may easily be arranged and fixed so that the 
leaves of one branch w T ill not crowd or overshadow those of another; and 
with a view to improve the size and quality of the fruit, I would suggest 
that the fruit first set should be destroyed, unless the plant has attained 
a considerable size. When a fruit is set, much of the sap prepared by 
the mature leaves will be devoted to its nourishment; whereas, if the 
first formed fruit is destroyed, Qie same sap would contribute to the 
more rapid development of other leaves, and the result would be that, 
in the branches and roots of the plant, there would be stored up a 
greater supply of organizable matter for the young fruit to feed upon ; 
and the plant, in consequence of its greater breadth of mature foliage, 
would be in a position to afford a greater continuous supply of organi¬ 
zable matter to the young fruit. The quantity of fruit which the melon 
