CULTURE OF TEE CUCUMBER IN PITS. 



505 



one melon plant is put, which in its subsequent growth is trained 

 upon a trellis, placed about fourteen inches distant from the glass, and 

 each plant is permitted to bear one melon only. This pit was used by 

 Mr. Knight for the culture of Persian melons, but it is evidently well 

 adapted for the culture of cucumbers, underneath which seakale, 

 rhubarb, or various other articles, might be forced. 



A pit to be heated by hot water and by a flue from the fire which 



Fig. 352. 



Cucumber or Melon-pit, heated by hot water in open troughs. 

 (The scale \ of an inch to a foot. ) 



a, Outer walls. 



6, Walls of the pit. 



c, Gutters, or troughs for heating the 

 atmosphere. 



cZ, Troughs under the soil in the open 

 chamber (m\ which is air-tight, 

 resting on the openings (e), which 

 convey the cooled air from the front 

 walk to the trough at the back, to 

 be heated ; these openings being 

 introduced at regular distances of 

 4 ft. or 5 ft. 



/, Walks round the bed. 



g, Shelf for plants. 



h, Trellis for training the plants. 



i, Descending return-pipe, which is a 



common 6-inch pipe, 

 fc, The trough at entering, which is 



closed from the boiler till it reaches c. 

 Z, Boiler. 

 m, Air-chamber ; the air of which is 



always at the point of saturation. 

 n, The soil, or other material, in which 



the plants are planted. 



heats the boiler, is thus described by Mr. Torbron. It is almost un- 

 necessary to add that it will answer as well for melons as for cucum- 

 bers, and inde. d if the pit was filled with proper soil and vines planted 

 in it, there cou d not be a better house for an early crop of grapes. 

 Length, thirty ,eet; width, eight feet; height at back, seven feet; at 

 front, four feet. A flue to run first to the front, and return under the 

 back wall, with cavities of two inches and a half. The space between 



