500 CULTURE OF THE CUCUMBER IN A DUNG-BED. 



surface, from which a noxious vapour arises, which, together with the 

 excessive heat, speedily destroys the plants. The best antidote to this 

 state is to turn the dung used twice a week for six or eight weeks, 

 before it is finally made up. 



The seed-bed requires to be first formed. It should be three feet 

 high at the back, and two feet six inches in front ; and when the lights 

 are put on, eight or ten days should elapse before sowing the seeds. 

 In order to prove whether or not the bed be sweet, shut the lights 

 down close for three or four hours ; then take a lighted candle in a 

 lantern, push down one of the lights, and put the candle and lantern 

 into the frame, and if the candle be not put out by the excess of 

 moisture or amount of gas, but should continue to burn, the bed will 

 be in a fit state to receive the plants or seeds. 



Soil. Some use leaf-mould, others loam and rotten dung, some 

 chopped turf, and others peat alone ; but the best soil is a sandy loam, 

 enriched with a fourth part rotten dung. For winter growth, dispense 

 with the dung. 



Sow the seeds, one, or six, or a dozen in a pot, and plunge in a 

 bottom heat of 80. The plants will appear in four or five days, and 

 when they are clearly above the soil, the pot may be lifted up and set 

 on the surface of the bed. When the plants show the third leaf, 

 reckoning the cotyledons two, they may be potted off singly into two 

 or three-inch pots. The soil used should be moderately fine but not 

 sifted, and a piece of turf should be placed over the crock at the bottom 

 of the pot for drainage. The plants should be inserted so deep in the 

 pot that the seed-leaves should just be a little above the level of the 

 rim, and the soil should be within an inch of the rirn, in order to allow 

 of adding a little more when the roots show themselves above the 

 surface. The tops of the plants, when set in the bed, should be within 

 six or eight inches of the glass, and as they increase in height the pot 

 should be lowered, so as always to keep the plants at about the same 

 distance. Water may be applied whenever it appears wanting, there 

 being much less danger in watering peat-soil than in watering leaf- 

 mould, because the former only retains a very moderate quantity. 

 When the heat of the bed falls below 70 some fresh lining may be 

 added. When the third leaf gets perfectly developed, a leading shoot 

 will rise from the base of its petiole, which, as soon as it is clearly 

 formed, should be pinched off; its removal will cause it to throw out 

 fresh shoots from the base of the seed-leaves. These shoots are 

 allowed to grow until they are two joints in length, when they must 

 be pinched back to one joint. As soon as the pots are filled with 

 roots, the plants may be either shifted into a six-inch pot or transferred 

 to their fruiting quarters. 



As every two joints of a cucumber will form roots, nothing can be 

 simpler than striking them from cuttings. It is much easier than the 

 striking of melons, and if done in the frame or pit no bell-glass will be 

 needed. 



Fmiting Bed. The dung should be prepared as for the seed bed. 

 The size of the frame may be twelve feet long and four feet wide, the 

 height at the back two feet, and in front one foot six inches ; the lights 



