CUCURBITACES. 
only method of warming it in the months of February and 
March, as by that time the first heat of the bed will have quite 
declined. Having made the bed, I put on the frames and lights, 
which I shut close till the heat rises. I then give air night and 
day, sufficient to allow the steam to pass off, and once in 2 days 
I fork the surface over, about 9 inches deep, to sweeten it, and 
if in the operation I find any part dry, I carefully wet it. The 
bed beieg quite sweet, I prepare it for the mould, by making the 
middle about 8 inches lower than the sides, as the sides are liable 
from the weight of the frames to settle farther than the middle, 
which often causes the hills of earth to crack, by which the roots 
of the plants are greatly injured.”—Mills ex Loud. encycl. gard. 
p. 632. 
Moulding.—* As soon,” Abercrombie observes, “ as you 
deem the bed to have a lively, safe, well-tempered heat, which 
may be in a week or 10 days after building, proceed to mould it. 
Earth the middle of each light, laying the mould so as to form 
a little hill from 6 to 10 inches in height, according as seed is to 
be sown, or plants from the seed-bed inserted. Then earth over 
the intervals between the hills, and the sides of the frame only, 
from 2 to 4 inches, as a temporary measure, until the heat is 
ascertained to be within safe limits. After the whole bed has 
been for some time covered, examine the mould ; if no traces of 
a burning effect appear discoverable by the mould turning of a 
whitish colour, and caking, it will be fit to receive the plants. 
But if the earth appears burnt, such part should be replaced by 
fresh, and vacuities made to give vent to the steam, by drawing 
every part of the hills from the centre. When the bed is in fit 
order, level the mould to 6 inches deep to receive the seeds ; but 
to receive plants in pots the hills of earth should be kept 10 
inches deep or more. If there be any motive for haste, while 
an excess of heat is to be suspected, the danger from burning 
may be obviated by leaving vacancies in the top of the mould ; 
by placing patches of fresh cow-dung or decayed bark to receive 
the pots of seeds or plants; and by boring holes in the bed with 
a round pole, sharpened at the end, which holes should be filled 
up with hay or dung when the heat is sufficiently reduced. 
Some persons place a layer of turf with the sward downwards be- 
tween the dung and the mould ; but this, if ever expedient, is 
only in late forcing ; for in winter the full effect of a sweet well- 
tempered heat is wanted, much of which, by being confined at 
the top, may be forced out at the sides.” M‘Phail, in moulding 
common hot-beds, also raises hills in the centre of each light in 
the usual way. Gard. rem. p. 51. Nicol gathers up from the 
surface of the beds a sufficient quantity of earth to raise hills 
whereon to plant ; one exactly in the middle of each light, about 
a foot broad at top, and to within 6 inches of the glass. If the 
frames be a proper depth, they should be 12 or 15 inches high 
above the turf. Kal. p. 365. Mills puts under the centre of 
each light one solid foot of earth, the top of which is hardly within 
9 inches of the glass, and the top of the plants when planted in 
it will be within 3 inches of the glass, 
Planting out.—Abercrombie, when the temperature is ascer- 
tained to be right, brings the plants in their pots ; turns over the 
hills of mould, forming them again properly, and then proceeds 
to planting. “ Turn those in pots clean out, one pot at a time, 
with the ball of earth whole about the roots, and thus insert one 
patch of three plants which have grown together, with the ball 
of earth entire, into the middle of each hill, earthing them neatly 
round the stems. Also any not in pots, having been pricked 
into the earth of the bed if required for planting, may be taken 
up with a small ball of earth, and planted similarly. With water 
warmed to the air of the bed, give a very light watering about 
the roots, and shut down the glasses for the present, or till next 
morning. Shade the plants a little from the mid-day sun a few 
days till they have taken root in the hills, and cover the glasses 
IV. Cucumis. 19 
every evening with large mats.” Nicol, before planting, if the 
beds have settled anywise unequally, rectifies and sets level the 
frames, by placing boards, slates, or bricks under the low cor- 
ners, so as to make them correct. He then makes up the out- 
sides of the bed with dung a few inches higher than the bottoms 
of the frame, over which he lays some dry litter or fern fronds, 
and planks at top to walk on. He then takes the pots of plants, 
each of which are supposed to have got two or three rough 
leaves, and making a hole in each hill, full large enough to re- 
ceive the balls, turns them out of the pots as entire as possible, 
placing them level with the surface of the hill, fitting the earth 
round their sides, and settling all with a little water. In the case 
of planting older plants than the above, at a farther advanced 
period of the season, or such as have quite filled the pots with 
their roots, the balls may be reduced a little, and the fibres 
should be singled out, if anywise matted. But the above plants 
are supposed to have barely filled the pots with roots, and then 
the balls should be kept entire, that they may not receive a check 
in transplanting. 
Temperature for fruiting plants—Abercrombie’s minimum is 
55°, and maximum in the day time 65°, the same as for the seed- 
bed. M‘Phail says, “It appears that during the winter and 
spring months the medium heat of the air in the frames should 
be 75°, and the maximum heat 80°. But when the sun shines 
the heat of the air in the frames is increased toa much higher de- 
gree; so that reckoning this heat, the medium for that of theair 
in the frames may be 80°.” Gard. rememb. p. 59. Nicol’s 
medium heat for cucumbers is 60°; in sunshine he admits as 
much air as will keep down the thermometer to 65°. Kal. p. 366. 
Mills, in the fruiting frames, wishes “ to have at all times from 
70 to 80 degrees of heat, which I regularly keep up by applying 
linings of hot dung, prepared one month previously, in the same 
manner as that for the beds. For the first month I cover the 
glass with a single mat only; and as the nights become cold, I 
increase the covering, using hay, which I put on the glass, and 
cover that with a single mat. I regulate the heat at night by 
the warmth of the glass under the hay, for when the glass is 
warm, which should be in two hours after covering up, a little air 
is required. When the glass and hay covering are warm, which 
is easily known by putting the hand under the hay on the glass 
light, the internal heat of the bed will be about 78 degrees, in 
which degree of heat the cucumbers have grown in length in 16 
hours one inch and a quarter. I give a little water round the 
insides of the frames, as often as I find them dry, which causes 
a fine steam to rise, and I think it better than watering the 
mould, for if this latter practice is often repeated in winter, 
when the sun’s power is insufficient to absorb the moisture, and 
the glasses can be but little open to allow the damp to pass off, 
the earth in a few weeks will lose its vigour, and the roots of 
the plants will perish. Great care should also be taken, at this 
season, not to injure the roots by too much heat, which is not 
less detrimental than too much moisture: they can only be 
secured by keeping up a regular warmth, just sufficient to expel 
the damp, which arises in the night from the fermenting dung.” 
Linings.—The requisite degree of heat, Abercrombie is care- 
ful to support in the bed when declining, ‘ by timely linings of 
hot fresh dung, which may be applied to the sides 15 or 18 
inches in width, and as high as the dung of the bed. Generally 
line the back part first, and the other in a week, or from 10 days 
to a fortnight after, as may seem necessary by the degree of 
heat in the bed. Sometimes if the heat has fallen abruptly 
below the minimum degree, it may be proper to line both sides 
moderately, at once to recover the temperature sooner, and with 
better effect; but be particularly careful never to over line, 
which would cause a too violently renewed heat, and steam in 
the bed. The dung for linings must be fermented, as in first 
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