CUCURBITACEE. 
covered, or the runners to be supported with mould; raising it 
by degrees equal with the tops of the hills, all in level order 
from 8 to 10 inches thick.” Pract. Gard. p. 72. Nicol, “ by the 
time the plants have sent out runners, and the roots spread 
quite over the hills, enlarges them; beginning by stirring up the 
earth in the other parts of the frame to its full depth with a 
hand-fork or weeding-iron, breaking it fine if anywise caked by 
the heat. To this add fresh mould, sifted or finely broken, and 
in a dry state, so as to raise the surface nearly to the level of 
the hills; laying it in a sloping manner from back to front. 
Previously he rectifies the position and level of the frames, and 
raises them so that the glass may be eight or nine inches above 
the mould in the centre.” Kal. p. 367. 
Training.—To force the cucumber into early fruit, Aber- 
crombie directs to “‘ stop the runners as soon as the plants have 
made two rough leaves; as the bud that produces the runner is 
disclosed at the base of the second rough leaf, it may be cut off 
or picked out, or if the runner has already started it may be 
pinched off close. This is called stopping at the first joint, and 
is necessary for a stronger stocky growth, and an emission of 
fruitful laterals ; and from these other prolific runners will be 
successively produced. The vines, without the process of stop- 
ping, would generally be both weaker, and so deficient of fertile 
runners, that they would sometimes extend 2 or 3 feet without 
showing fruit. When plants which have been once stopped 
have extended the first runners to three joints without showing 
fruit, they are to be again stopped for the purpose of strengthen- 
ing the plant, and disposing it for bearing. As fertile runners 
extend, train them out regularly along the surface, fastening 
them down neatly with pegs.” M‘Phail stops his plants when 
they have two joints; and “ when the plants shoot forth again 
after the second stopping, they seldom miss to show fruit at 
every joint, and also a tendril; and between the tendril and the 
showing fruit, may clearly be seen the rudiment of another shoot, 
and when the leading shoot has extended itself fairly past the 
showing fruit ; so that in pinching off the tendril and the shoot, 
the showing fruit is not injured. This stopping the leading 
shoot stops the juices of the plant, and is the means of enabling 
the next shoot (the rudiment of which was apparent when the 
leading shoot was stopped,) to push vigorously, and the fruit 
thereby also receives benefit. When the plants are come into 
bearing, if the vines are suffered to make two joints before they 
are stopped, at the first of these joints, as I before said, will be 
seen showing fruit, a tendril, and the rudiment of a shoot; but 
at the second joint there is seldom to be seen either showing 
fruit or the rudiment of a shoot; but only a tendril, and the 
rudiments of male blossoms. It is therefore evident, and but 
reasonable, that the shoot should be stopped at the first of these 
Joints; for were the shoot to be let run past the first joint, and 
stopped before the second, perhaps no shoot would ever spring 
forth at the said second joint, but only a cluster of male blos- 
soms or leaves, which would serve for no good purpose, but 
would rather exhaust the juices of the plant, which ought to be 
thrown into the productive parts of it. If the plants are suf- 
fered to bear too many fruit, that will weaken them, and in such 
case some of the shoots will lose their leaders, that is, the rudi- 
ments of some of the shoots will not break forth, the numbers of 
fruit having deprived them of their proper share of the vegeta- 
tive juices. The rudiments of some of the shoots may also be 
injured by accident, which sometimes prevents their pushing ; 
but from whatever cause this happens it matters not, for by the 
losing of its leader the shoot is rendered unfruitful, and therefore 
should be cut entirely off. In the course of the spring and 
summer months, several shoots break forth here and there from 
the old ones. When too many break out, cut off the weakest of 
them close to the old shoots, and those which remain, with re- 
IV. Cucumis. 21 
gard to stopping, serve nearly in the same manner as young 
plants. If the old shoot from which the new one bursts forth 
lie close to the moulds, it sometimes sends forth roots from the 
same joint from which the young shoot proceeded, by which the 
young shoot is much invigorated, and the old plant in some 
measure renovated. When this young plant is fairly formed on 
the old shoot, it somewhat resembles a young plant formed and 
struck root on a strawberry runner ; and if the shoot were to be 
cut off on each side of the newly formed plant, and no part of the 
plant left in the frame but itself, by proper treatment it would 
soon extend itself all over the frame. In winter, when the 
plants are young, and before they come into bearing, it some- 
times happens that they send forth too many shoots; in that 
case, cut the weakest of them off, not suffering them to become 
crowded and thick of vines, for that would weaken, and prevent 
the plants from bearing so early as they ought to do. Keep the 
leaves of the plants always regularly thin. The oldest and 
worst of them cut off first, and cut off close to the shoot on 
which they grow. This is necessary and right, for if any part of 
the stalk of the leaf were to be left, it would soon putrify and 
rot, and perhaps destroy by damp the main branch from which 
it proceeded.” Nicol. ‘ Cucumber plants will put out runners 
or vines, whether the heart-buds be picked out or not, which is 
a matter of trivial concern, although much insisted on by some, 
as being necessary to their doing so at all. For my own part I 
never could discover any difference, and I have repeatedly made 
the comparison in the same bed, which otherwise of course could 
not be fair. When the vines have grown to the length of 4 or 
5 joints, and if fruit appear on them, they may be stopped at 
one joint above the fruit; but otherwise, they may be allowed to 
run the length of 7 or 8 joints, and may then be stopped, which 
will generally cause them to push fertile shoots. These should 
be regularly spread out, and be trained at the distance of 8 or 10 
inches apart.” 
Pruning and training cucumber plants.—W. P. Vaughan, 
(Gard. mag. 7. p. 462.) considers the productiveness of cucum- 
ber plants as depending principally on pruning, and the age of 
the seed; his system of management is therefore as follows. 
As he saves a few seeds annually he has always some three years 
old; these he sows in shallow pans in a dung heat not under 70°, 
and by the time the plants have spread their seminal leaves, he 
has soil and 32-sized pots ready dried in the frames, and plants 
them so as they will just reach over the rim of the pot when 
planted 3 or 4 in each pot, making them form a triangle or 
square ; he then fills the pots to within half an inch of the top, 
waters them, and keeps them in a brisk heat of from 65° to 75°. 
And as soon as they have spread their first rough leaves, he 
picks out the leading bud from each plant close to the second 
leaf, and in a few days afterwards each plant will put forth two 
shoots, and they are ready for plunging in the hills without 
breaking the balls of earth, that is, one potful in each hill. 
When the lateral shoots have made two joints, they must be 
stopped at the second as before, and pegged down with a piece 
of straight stick, 6 inches long, broken half through in two 
places, so as to form a square. Each shoot will now produce 
two more, which never fail to show fruit at the first joint, and 
` must be stopped at the second, which operation must be done to 
all as they make two joints. Picking off the male blossoms and 
setting the fruit, as they open, should be done in the morning 
just before the sun comes strong on the frames, until the weather 
will admit of the lights being open a great part of the day ; 
watering should also be performed at the same time, shutting the 
frame close for a few minutes after. Cuttings taken from the 
tops of the shoots about 4 inches long, and planted in a. pot 
deep enough to admit a flat pane of glass on the top, will strike 
freely, and these plants so produced will come into bearing 
