234 

 WINTER CUCUMBERS. 



BY A KENTISH GAKDENEB. 



HAVING been a successful grower of cucumbers for winter 

 consumption for several years past, I bave decided to 

 detail my practice upon paper, in the bope it may prove 

 useful to many readers of the Flokal AVoeld. In the 

 first place, I must remark that the details given below 

 refer to cucumbers grown in houses only, and not to those grown in 

 frames with dung-heat, and I may state that the bottom-heat is 

 furnished by a tank filled with water, through which a four-inch flow 

 and return pipe is carried, which is heated from the boiler, in con- 

 junction with six other pipes of the same size for top-heat, in a 

 small lean-to house, 16 feet by 10. I have full control over all 

 the pipes, and only use those for top-heat when the weather is 

 severe, and I wish to maintain a regular temperature for fruiting 

 plants. And on this depends much of the success ; for where there 

 is a deficiency of heating surface the plants suffer materially in 

 frosty weather if they are allowed to get chilled. 



The soil I use is a sweet turfy loam, half decomposed leaf-soil, 

 and well-rotted dung, in equal parts. To every barrow-load of this 

 I add about a gallon of coarse sand — either river or road sand is 

 the best, as its particles are larger, and consequently they make the 

 soil more porous. I do not like to use for winter work a loam that 

 is destitute of its turfy surface, as it tends to make the bed too close 

 and impervious to air and water. After the bed bos been made 

 up a few weeks, therefore, I procure a thin surface spit from which 

 the turf has not been removed. When this .has lain by for a few 

 months, it cuts up with the spade in excellent condition. I cut it 

 into pieces about half the size of one's hand, and well incorporate 

 it with the other ingredients. It would surprise those who advocate 

 the growing of winter cucumbers in a soil consisting chiefly of peat 

 earth to see what luxuriant foliage they make, and how vigorously 

 the roots ramify and extend themselves in and around these turfy- 

 lumps, and its nature gives to the other component parts an agree- 

 able consistency, while its turfy texture admits of a free access to 

 air and water, without which the plants cannot long remain in 

 health. The rotten dung and half-decomposed leaves are both 

 essential ; the first to afford the roots a sufficient amount of nourish- 

 ment, and the latter are valuable for the organic matter which they 

 contain, and on which the plants will feed with avidity, and show 

 their gratitude by exposing to the cultivator well developed foliage 

 of the densest dark green, such as every good grower of cucumbers 

 delights to see, and without which a satisfactory produce cannot be 

 expected. The above compost should be put on the tank in a 

 moderately moist but not in a wet condition. 



As to the time of planting, many years' experience convinces 

 me that it should not be delayed after the third week in August. 

 Of course, they may be planted later and made to fruit during the 

 winter; but requiring cucumbers from December onwards, which 



