Cucumis melo.

Varieties

There are many varieties of the Melon of which the Nutmeg may be considered as the type; it and the Citron are, however, the most desirable, which have come under our observation. The mode of out-door culture is very similar to that of the cucumber; they delight in light land well manured; are quite tender, and should not be planted until all fear of frost has ceased.

To Force Melons

Although a common hot-bed is generally used for this plant, yet a pit, as it is technically termed, is more economical, and by enabling a more regular temperature to be sustained, renders the fruit in greater perfection. The pit is a rectangular frame or bin, built of nine inch brickwork, in preference to boards, which have to be renewed every five or six years, if employed and enclosed by a glass case of the necessary dimensions. Mr. Smith, gardener to A. Keith, Esq., of Ravelstone, N. B., has suggested a mode of building a pit which renders the renewal of the heat in it easy; and as the committee appointed to examine it report, is the means of considerable saving compared with the common mode of forming an open bed. But the facility with which linings may be applied is its best feature; for if by any chance the heat failed, there was seldom any alternative in the old pits but to break them up.

The accompanying sketch will at once show the form of the pit, and Mr. Smith's mode of applying the linings. a is the pit the side of which a a instead of being a continuous piece of brick-work are merely rows of pillars six feet apart; and the brick-work of the frame b b is supported by bars of iron reaching from pillar to pillar. An outer wall, c c, is constructed at two and a half feet distance from the pillars on each side; thus two bins are formed in which the linings are inserted, as is found necessary, and are kept close covered with thick boards; d represents the lights, which thus are formed without any wooden frames. For other modes of construction, see Pits, etc. If a common hot-bed is employed, fifteen barrow loads of dung is the usual allowance to each light, which make it about six inches higher than is allowed lor the cucumber bed of largest dimensions. If a melon house be employed, the following is the form and mode adopted by Mr. Fleming.

Fig. 98

"The house is twenty-eight feet long, and fifteen wide, and is heated by means of a saddle boiler, with four-inch pipes passing round the outside of the pit, which pipes are fitted with cast-iron troughs for holding water to regulate the moisture of the atmosphere. Beneath the pit is an arched chamber, a, along the front of which runs the flue, b, imparting a slight degree of heat to the soil above, and also serving to heat a series of arches, c, which run along beneath the path, and are entered from a house in front, d, and which are used for forcing rhubarb, etc, in the winter." - Gard. Chron.

Fig. 99.

Mr. Green has published the following excellent mode of heating a melon pit with hot water: -

"The annexed figure represents a section of the pit: 1, 1, are the flow pipes and the water troughs; 3, the pipes to fill the troughs; 4, the pipe by which the water is let out of the troughs; 5, the bed for the plants; and 6, the trellis on which the shoots are trained".

Fig. 100.