to insure a fair
return. The young plants are pinched when there are two rough leaves.
The result is two side shoots. These are allowed to produce six or seven
leaves, and are then pinched. After this, the plants are permitted to
run, and there is no more pinching or pruning until the crop is visible.
Then the fruits that are to remain must be selected, and the shoots be
pinched to one eye above each fruit, and only one fruit should remain on
a shoot; the others must be removed a few at a time. All overgrowth must
be guarded against, for crowded plants will be comparatively worthless.
It is not by rudely cutting out that crowding is to be prevented, but by
timely pinching out every shoot that is likely to prove superfluous.
From first to last there must be a regular plant, and not a shoot should
be allowed to grow that is not wanted. Cutting out may produce canker,
and crowding results in sterility.

As the Melon is required to ripen its fruits, and the Cucumber is not,
the treatment varies in view of this difference. It is not necessary to
fertilise the female flowers of the Cucumber, but it is certainly
desirable, if not absolutely necessary, to operate on those of the Melon
to insure a crop. The early morning, when the leaves are dry and the sun
is shining, is the proper time for this task, which is described in a
later paragraph. And the necessity for ripening the crop marks another
difference of management, for Cucumbers may carry many fruits, and
continue producing them until the plants are exhausted. But the
production of Melons must be limited to about half a dozen on each
plant, and good management requires that these should all ripen at the
same time, or nearly so, fully exposed to the sun, and with plenty of
ventilation.

The requisite supply of water is an important matter. The plant should
never be dry at the root, and must have a light shower twice a day over
the leafage, but the moisture which is necessary for Cucumbers would be
excessive for Melons. It is a golden rule to grow Melons liberally,
keeping them sturdy by judicious air-giving, and to give them a little
extra watering just as they are coming into flower. Then, as the flowers
open, the watering at the root should be discontinued, and the syringe
should be used in the evening only at shutting up. If discontinued
entirely, red spider will appear, and the crop will be in jeopardy, for
that pest can be kept at a distance only by careful regulatio