86 CUCUMBER 



foot of wood at the bottom, will make the bed three feet 

 high ; this I consider a good height, for, if lower, it cannor be 

 so well heated by linings, which is the only method of warm- 

 ing 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 ptt on the frames and lights, which I shut 

 close till the heat rises. I then give air night and day, suffi- 

 cient to allow the steam to pass off, and once in two days I 

 fork the surface over, about nine inches deep, to sweeten it, 

 and if, in the operation, I find any part dry, I carefully wet it. 

 The bed being quite sweet, I prepare it for the mould, by 

 unking the middle about eight inches lower than the sides, 

 as the sides are liable, from the weight of the frames, to 

 settle faster than the middle, which often causes the hills 

 of earth to crack, by which the roots of the plants are 

 greatly injured." Hort. Trans, vol. iii. p. 147. 



Mr. Cobbett says, " If you wish to have cucumbers a 

 month earlier than the natural ground will bring them, do 

 this : Make a hole, and put into it a little hot dung ; let 

 the hole* be under a warm fence. Put six inches deep of 

 fine rich earth on the dung. Sow a parcel of seeds in this 

 earth ; and cover at night with a bit of carpet, or sail-cloth , 

 having first fixed some hoops over this little bed. Before 

 the plants show the rough leaf, plant two into a little flower- 

 pot, and fill as many pots in this way as you please. Have 

 a larger bed ready to put the pots into, and covered with 

 earth, so that the pots may be plunged in the earth up to their 

 tops. Cover this bed like the last When the plants have 

 got two rough leaves out, they will begin to make a shoot 

 in the middle. Pinch that short off. Let them stand in 

 this bed, till your cucumbers sown in the natural ground come 

 up ; then make some little holes in good, rich land, and, 

 taking a pot at a time, turn out the ball, and fix it in the 

 hole. These plants will bear a month sooner than those sown 

 in the natural ground ; and a square yard will contain thirty- 

 six pots, and will, of course, furnish plants for thirty-six hills 

 of cucumbers, which, if well managed, will keep on bearing 

 till September. Those who have hot-bed frames, or hand- 

 lights, will do this matter very easily. The cucumber plant 

 is very tender and juicy ; and, therefore, when the seed- 

 lings are put into the pots, they should be watered and 

 shaded for a day or two ; when the balls are turned into the 

 ground, they should be watered, and shaded with a bough 

 for one day. That will be enough. I have one observa- 

 tion to maks upon the cultivation of cucumber*, melons of 



