As regards the bed, it may be made once and for all at the time of planting, a few days being allowed for warming the soil through.  But we much prefer to begin with smallish hillocks, or with a thin sharp ridge raised so as almost to touch the lights, and to plant or sow on this ridge, which can be added to from time to time as the plants require more root room.  The soil, coming fresh and fresh, sustains a vigorous and healthy root action.  The high ridge favours the production of stout leaves, and the absorption by the soil of sun-heat is to the Melon of the first importance.

The practice of pruning Melons as if the plants were grown for fodder, and might be chopped at for supplies of herbage, must be heartily condemned.  Melons should never be so crowded as to necessitate cutting out, except in a quite trivial manner.  A free and vigorous plant is needed, and under skilful attention it will rarely happen that there is a single leaf anywhere that can be spared.  We will propose a practical rule that we have followed in growing Melons for seed, of which a large crop of the most perfect fruits is absolutely needful 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.