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middle of the holes, and feeling the lower part of 

 which will fatisfy you what condition your bed is 

 ^1. , then you mufl llir up the earth in the middle of 

 the hole with your hand, breaking all clods, and re- 

 movino- all large ftones, making the earth hollow in 

 form ol' a bafon ; into each of thefe holes you mufl 

 plant two plants, in doing of which, obfcrve to make 

 the holes tor the plants a little flanting towards the 

 middle of the bafon, efpecially if your plants arc long 

 Ihanked ; this is intended to place the roots ot the 

 plants as far as poffible from the dung, to which it 

 they approach too near, the lower pare of their roots 

 is fubjeft to be burned off; then fettle the earth 

 gently to each plant, and, if the earth is dry, it will 

 be proper to give them a little water (which fliould 

 be warmed to the temper of the bed, as was before 

 direded ;) and if the fun Ihould appear in the middle 

 of the day, they Ihould be fhaded therefrom with 

 mats until the plants have taken root, which will be 

 in two or three days ; after which, you mull let thdn 

 enjoy as much of the fun as poffible, obferving to 

 turn the lights in the day time to dry, as alfo to give 

 a little air whenever the wxathcr will permit. 

 You mufl: alfo obferve to keep the glaffes covered 

 every night, and in bad weather, but be very careful 

 not to keep them covered too clofe, efpecially while 

 the bed has a great fteam in it, which will caufe a 

 damp to fettle upon the plants, which, for want of 

 air to keep the fluid in motion, will ftagnate and rot 

 them. _ ---J t^-''' <^' '■ -^:> >-- ••- ^ 



"When your plants are grown to be four or five inches 

 high, you mufl:, with Tome- flender- forked (licks, in- 

 cline them toward the earth, each one a feparatc 

 way, but this mufl: be done gently at firfl:, lefl: by 

 forcing them too much, you ffiould fl:rain or break 

 the tender vefTels of the plants, which would be very 

 hurtful to them. In this manner you fliould, from 

 time to time, obferve to peg down the runners as 

 they are produced, laying each in exact order, fo 

 as not to interfere or crofs each other ; nor fliould you 

 ever after remove them from their places, or handle 

 them too roughly, whereby the leaves may be broken 

 ordifplaced, which is alfo equally injurious to them j 

 but whenever you have occafion to weed the bed be- 



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tween the plants, do it with great care, holding the 

 leaves afide with one hand, while with the other you 

 pull out the weeds. 



In about a month after they are ridged out, you may 

 expeft to fee the beginnings of fruit, which very 

 often are preceded by male fiowersj which many 

 people are fo ignorant as to pull off, calling them 

 lalfe bloffoms j but this I am fully convinced, by 

 many experiments, is wrong ; for thefe flowers are of 

 abfolute fervice to |)romote the welfare of the fruit, 

 which, when thefe rtiale flowers are entirely taken off, 

 does very often fall away, and come to nothing : nor 

 Ihould the Vines be pruned, as is too often the prac- 

 tice of unfl^ilful people, efpecially when they are too 

 luxuriant, which often happens when the feeds were 

 frefli, or of the lafl: year's faving, and the plants in 

 good heart. If this fliould happen to be the cafe, it 

 would be very proper to pull up one of the plants, 

 before they have run fo far as to entangle with the 

 othej -, for it often happens, that one or two plants 

 are better than four or five, when they are vigorous ; 

 for when the frame is too much crouded with Vine, 

 the fruit is feldom good, nor in fuch plenty, as when 

 there is a more moderate quantity of flioots ; for the 

 air being hereby excluded from the fruit, they often 

 decay, and fall off very young. 

 You mufl: alfo be very careful to cover the glaffes 

 every night when your fruit begins to appear, as alfo 

 to lay a little frefti litter, or mowing of grafs round 

 the fides of the bed, to add a frefli heat thereto ; for 

 if the heat of the bed be fpent, and the nights prove 

 cold, the fruit will fall away and come to nothing ; 

 and when the fun is extrem.c hot in the middle of 

 the day, you mufl: cover the, glaffes with mats to 

 fhade the Vines v for although they delight in heat, 

 yet the direa rays of the fun, when it has great force, 



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are very injurious, by eitlier fcorching thofc leaves 

 which are near the gLlfes, or by caufing too great a 

 perfpiration, whereby the extreme part of t!ie jhoots 

 and the large leaves are left dcftirute of nourilhrnent, 

 and the fruit will be at a Hand, and often turn yellow 

 before it arrives at half its growth; this is too often 

 the cafe, when the beds liavenot a fufiielcnt depth of 

 earth over tiie dung. 



At this time, when your Vines are f[)read fo as to 

 cover the hot-bed, it will be of great fervice when 

 you water them, to fprinkle tliem ail over gently fo 

 as not to hurt the leaves y but obfervx to do this not 

 at a time when the fun is very hot, for hereby I have 

 known a whole bed of Cucumbers fpoiled , for the 

 water remaining upon the furface of the leaves in 

 drops, doth collect the rays of the fun as it were to 

 a focus, and fo fcorches the leaves, that in one day's 

 time they have, from a bright green, become of the 

 colour of brown paper. The watering of the beds 

 all over will be of great fervice, by giving nourifli- 

 ment to thofe roots, which by this time will have 

 extended thcmfelves all over the bed-, and if the 

 warmth of the bed fliould now decline, it will be of 

 great fervice to add a lining of frefli dung round the 

 fides of the beds, to give a new heat to them ; for as 

 the nights are often cold at this feafon, where the 

 beds have not a kindly warmth left in them, the fruit 

 will frequently drop off the Vines, when gr'jwn ro 

 the fize of a little finger; and if upon this lining of 

 dung there is a thicknefs of ftrong earth laid for the 

 roots of the plants to run into, it will greatly 

 fl:rengthen them, and continue the plants in vigour a 

 much longer time than they otherwife will do ; for 

 the roots of thefe plants extend to a great difl:ance 

 when they have room, which they cannot have in a 

 bed not more than five feet wide ; fo that when they 

 have no greater extent for their roots, the plants will 

 not continue in vigour above five or fix weeks, which, 

 if they have a depth and extent of earth, will con- 

 tinue three months in bearing -, lb that where there are 

 feveral beds made near each other, it will be the belt 

 way to fill up the bottom of the alleys between them 

 with warm dung, and cover that with a proper thick- 

 nefs of earth, fo as to raife them to thelevelof the beds. 

 Thefe direftions, with diligent obfervation, will be 

 fufficient for the management of this crop of Cucum- 

 bers V and Vines thus treated will continue to fupply 

 you with fruit till the beginning of July, by \t hich 

 time the fecond crop will come to bear ; the fowing 

 and managing of which is what I fliall next proceed to. 

 About the middle of March, or a little later, ac- 

 cording to the earlinefs of the feafon, you mufl: put 

 in your feeds, either under a bell-glafs, or in the 

 upper fide of your early hot-bed -, and when the plants 

 are come up, they fhould be pricked upon another 

 moderate hot-bed, which fliould be covered with bell 

 or hand-glaffes, placed as clofe as poffible to each 

 other ; the plants ftiould alfo be pricked at about two 

 inches difl:ance from each other, obferving to water 

 and fliade them until they have taken new root, 

 which will be in a very Ihort time. This is to be 

 underft:ood of fuch places where a great quantity of 

 plants are required, which is confl:antly the cafe in 

 the kitchen-gardens near London •, but where it is 

 only for the fupply of a family, there may be plants 

 enough raifed on the upper fide of the beds where 

 the firfl: crop is growing ; or if the Vines Ihould have 

 extended themfelves fofar as to cover the whole bed, 

 whereby there will not be room to prick the plants, 

 a fingle light will contain a fufficient number of 

 plants, while young, to plant out in ridges, as will 

 fupply the largefl: family with Cucumbers during the 

 latter feafon. You mufl: alfo cover the glaffes with 



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mats every night, or in very bad weather ; but in th< 

 day time, when the weather is hot, you mull raile 

 the glaffes with a fl;one on the oppofite fide from the 

 wind, to give air to the plants, which will gre»atly 

 fl:rengthen them ; you mufl: alfo water them as you 

 fliall°find th?y require it, but this 



fpa ino!;ly while the plants are young 



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