sowing is insufficient or has
failed.

==Lettuce== to be sown for succession, the quick-growing, tender-hearted
kinds being the best to sow now. Plant out from frames and seed-pans. A
few forward plants may be tied, but as a rule tying is less desirable
than most people suppose. Certainly, after tying, the hearts soon rot if
not quickly eaten; and Lettuces as fine as can be desired may now be
grown without tying, the close-hearting sorts being very much improved
in that respect.

==Melon==.--Sow again for a second crop in houses, and grow the plants in
pots until they reach a foot high. The early crop will then be ripe, and
the house can be cleared and syringed for a fresh start. From this
sowing fruit should be ready about the beginning of July. The frame
culture advised for Cucumbers will be right for Melons, until the fruits
attain the size of a small orange. Then a thorough soaking must be
given, and under proper management no more water should be necessary. A
dry atmosphere and free ventilation are essential to bring the fruit to
perfection. Stopping must be commenced early by pinching out the leader,
and only one eye should be allowed beyond the fruit which are to remain.
Six will be enough for one plant to carry, and they should be nearly of
a size, for if one obtains a strong lead, it will be impossible to ripen
the others. The remainder should be gradually removed while young. The
worst foe of the Melon is red spider, and it is difficult to apply a
remedy without doing mischief. Water will destroy it, but this may have
disastrous results on the fruit. The most certain preventive is stout
well-grown plants. Weakly specimens appear to invite attack, and are
incapable of struggling against it. Where plants are occasionally lost
through decay at the collar, small pieces of charcoal laid in a circle
round the stem have proved a simple and effectual antidote.

==Onion==.--The plants raised under glass in January or February should be
ready for planting out on some favourable day about mid-April. If any
mishap has befallen the sowings made in the open in March there must be
no delay in resowing early in the present month, for Onions should have
good hold of the ground before hot weather comes. Onions for pickling
should be grown thickly on poor ground made firm. The plants are not to
be thinned, but may be allowed to stand as thick as pebbles on the
seashore. The starving system produces abundance of small handsome