and prevent the mould from cracking after the bed has been earthed up.

In growing the large sized melons, it is necessary to have large frames where there are no pits, and to cover the beds fifteen or eighteen inches thick with the mould; it should be laid on when dry, the large lumps just broken, but by no means made fine, and when finally earthed up it should be made quite firm by gently treading it down. In this state it will generally be found to retain moisture enough to ripen its fruit, without having occasion to water the bed when this is the case, fruit are produced of the highest flavour it is possible they should attain; but when Cantaloup and other red-fleshed melons are grown through the mere agency of heat and excessive moisture, their flavour is ever flat and insipid, in proportion to the quantity of water thus employed.

The melons of Persia, which compose the third and fourth of the foregoing divisions, differ remarkably from the varieties commonly cultivated in Europe. They are altogether destitute of the thick hard rind which characterises the latter, and which renders the one half of every fruit useless; on the contrary, they are protected by a skin so thin and delicate, that they are subject to injury from causes which would produce no perceptible effect upon the melons of Europe. Their flesh is extremely tender, rich, and sweet, and flows copiously with a cool juice which renders them still more grateful. To these important qualities they in many cases add the merit of bearing abundant crops of fruit, the appearance of which is always extremely beautiful.

But, on the other hand, their cultivation is attended with peculiar difficulties. They are found to require a very high temperature, a dry atmosphere, and an extremely humid soil, while they are at the same time impatient of an undue supply of moisture, which causes

spotting and sudden decay long before the fruit is ma tured.

It is not, therefore, easy to maintain that necessary balance of heat and moisture which in Persia arises out of the very nature of the climate and mode of cultivation.

In that country, we are told, that the melon is grown in open fields, intersected in every direction by small streams, between which lie elevated beds richly manured with pigeons' dung. Upon these beds the melons are planted. The Persian gardener has, therefore, to guard against nothing but a scarcity of water, the rest is provided by his own favourable climate. With us the atmosphere, the ventilation, the water, and the heat, are all artificial agents, operating in opposition to each other.

The most successful method of cultivation which has yet been practised, seems to be to supply the plants abundantly with water at the roots, but to give them as little as possible over head; to combine copious ventilation and high temperature by means of frequently renewing the linings with hot dung, and to elevate each fruit a few inches above the soil, by means of a slate laid upon two bricks placed side by side.

CHAP. XI.

MULBERRIES.

THE only Mulberries cultivated in England are the black and the white fruited: the black for its fruit, the white for the feeding of silkworms. Black Mulberries are propagated by laying down the young branches in the autumn, or early in the spring. At the end of the

year, the layers may be removed from the stools and planted out in rows, three feet apart, and a foot from plant to plant in the rows: those intended for training against walls may be planted out at once for the purpose, and the richer the soil is in which they are planted the more rapid will be the progress of the trees.

Pruning and Training.

Mulberries are principally planted as standards in orchards, and upon grass plots in the pleasure garden. In the selection of a tree for this purpose make choice of one that is straight in the stem, and free from blemishes, with a head of three or four well placed regular shoots; should there be more they must be cut

out.

When the tree has been planted a year, and got firm hold of the soil, these shoots should be cut down to three or four inches, from each of which two or three clean, straight shoots will probably be produced. In August, four of the strongest and best placed should be selected, and the rest cut out, thus giving the remaining ones a better chance of extending their length, and of ripening their extremities; besides, with a little additional trouble, if the shoots should not be so well placed as could be wished, their direction can be altered at pleasure, by tying them to small sticks fixed in the head for that purpose. In the following spring, if the four should be of an equal length, they must not be shortened; but if one or two be much longer than the other, they must be reduced to the same length, and allowed to grow for another year, when the head should be thinned out, leaving as many of the best placed shoots as will form the head. This being completed, nothing further will be required than to examine the head from

R

year to year, giving advantage to the leading shoots, cutting out close all redundant ones, and those likely to injure one another. As this sort of fruit is always the largest and best flavoured, where the trees are kept thin of wood, their neglect will consequently diminish its

To face Page 243.

By an accidental oversight, the asterisks denoting the sorts called French Peaches have been omitted to be inserted in their proper places. The sorts to which they should have been prefixed are Peaches 10. 11. 20. 22. 23. 25. 26. 27. 35. 36. 37. 38. 39. 40. 47. 48. 49. 50. 51.; and Nectarine 1.

nailing at length the horizontal shoots, observing to keep the two sides of the tree equal. This may be easily effected, for if one branch should take the lead more considerably than the others, its leader may be shortened in the spring, and a new leader given to it in July.

In the winter prunings it will be necessary to use the knife freely, in order to keep down the strong spurs which are annually enlarging and lengthening themselves; for without a determination of reducing them, they would, in a few years, extend a foot from the wall, rendering the trees unsightly and unprofitable; but by thinning them out, and cutting them back from time to time, they may readily be kept within due bounds, and in a state of fruitfulness.

Mulberries trained against the wall should have a south, south-east, or east aspect; but it is useless to attempt to train them unless there is a great extent of wall, and where they can be continued at their full length: an attempt to confine them within narrow bounds being fruitless, unless the most preposterous way imaginable be resorted to, of training the tree in twenty or thirty different directions.

A tree of this description may be tolerated for the amusement of the experimentalist; but its exhibition cannot appear otherwise than ridiculous to the man of taste and judgment.

The two finest trained mulberry trees I have ever seen are now growing at Holkham, the seat of T. W. Coke, Esq.; one of these extends more than thirty yards, the other twenty-eight.

CHAP. XII.

PEACHES.

An Asterisk (*) denotes those which Nurserymen term French Peaches, and which require to be budded upon the Pear Plum Stock.

SECT. I. Melting, pale fruited.

1. ALMOND PEACH. Hort. Trans. Vol. iii. p. 1. t. 1.

Leaves doubly serrated, glandless. Flowers large, pale rose colour. Fruit below the middle size, about seven inches in circumference, globular, with a slight suture extending from the base to the apex, which is