160 THE KITCHEN-GARDEN. JCHAP. VI. 



grow the cucumbers long and straight, and to 

 keep them green with a beautiful bloom. For 

 the first purpose, many cultivators place a brick 

 under the young fruit ; and for the latter they 

 leave on the plant abundance of leaves, and 

 keep the ground moist, as the plant appears to 

 thrive best when it has abundance of heat and 

 moisture, and is kept in the shade. A dry 

 heat, and especially exposure to the burning 

 rays of the sun, will make cucumbers flaccid 

 and yellow. 



Pickling Cucumbers are generally sown in 

 patches of ten or twelve seeds in each, in the 

 open air; and, when they come up, they are 

 thinned out to four or five in each patch. They 

 are sown in rich ground, and well watered ; 

 and, as they grow, they are occasionally earthed 

 up. 



Melons. — The culture of the melon is the 

 same as that of the cucumber, except that the 

 lowest heat of the seed-bed should not be less 

 than 65°, and that of the fruiting bed 75°. 

 To grow the finer kinds of melons well, how- 

 ever, requires the attention of a regular gar- 

 dener ; and, as this is the case also with pine- 

 apples (the plants of which are too expensive 

 to be trifled with), no directions are here given 

 respecting them. 



Gourds. — The vegetable marrows, the Ame- 

 rican butter-squash and the mammoth gourd, 

 are excellent for the table, either in soup, or 

 half-boiled and then fried in batter. The plants 

 of all these kinds should be raised in a hotbed, 

 the seeds being sown in March or April, three 

 in a pot, and covered nearly an inch deep. In 



