CUCURBITACE^E. IV. CUCUMIS. 



19 



only method of warming 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 put on the frames and lights, 

 which I shut close till the heat rises. I then give air night and 

 day, sufficient to allow the steam to pass off, and once in 2 days 

 I fork the surface over, about 9 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 making the 

 middle about 8 inches lower than the sides, as the sides are liable 

 from the weight of the frames to settle farther than the middle, 

 which often causes the hills of earth to crack, by which the roots 

 of the plants are greatly injured." Mills ex Loud, encycl. gard. 

 p. 632. 



Moulding. " As soon," Abercrombie observes, " as you 

 deem the bed to have a lively, safe, well-tempered heat, which 

 may be in a week or 10 days after building, proceed to mould it. 

 Earth the middle of each light, laying the mould so as to form 

 a little hill from 6 to 10 inches in height, according as seed is to 

 be sown, or plants from the seed-bed inserted. Then earth over 

 the intervals between the hills, and the sides of the frame only, 

 from 2 to 4 inches, as a temporary measure, until the heat is 

 ascertained to be within safe limits. After the whole bed has 

 been for some time covered, examine the mould ; if no traces of 

 a burning effect appear discoverable by the mould turning of a 

 whitish colour, and caking, it will be fit to receive the plants. 

 But if the earth appears burnt, such part should be replaced by 

 fresh, and vacuities made to give vent to the steam, by drawing 

 every part of the hills from the centre. When the bed is in fit 

 order, level the mould to 6 inches deep to receive the seeds ; but 

 to receive plants in pots the hills of earth should be kept 10 

 inches deep or more. If there be any motive for haste, while 

 an excess of heat is to be suspected, the danger from burning 

 may be obviated by leaving vacancies in the top of the mould ; 

 by placing patches of fresh cow-dung or decayed bark to receive 

 the pots of seeds or plants ; and by boring holes in the bed with 

 a round pole, sharpened at the end, which holes should be filled 

 up with hay or dung when the heat is sufficiently reduced. 

 Some persons place a layer of turf with the sward downwards be- 

 tween the dung and the mould ; but this, if ever expedient, is 

 only in late forcing ; for in winter the full effect of a sweet well- 

 tempered heat is wanted, much of which, by being confined at 

 the top, may be forced out at the sides." M'Phail, in moulding 

 common hot-beds, also raises hills in the centre of each light in 

 the usual way. Gard. rein. p. 51. Nicol gathers up from the 

 surface of the beds a sufficient quantity of earth to raise hills 

 whereon to plant ; one exactly in the middle of each light, about 

 a foot broad at top, and to within 6 inches of the glass. If the 

 frames be a proper depth, they should be 12 or 15 inches high 

 above the turf. Kal. p. 365. Mills puts under the centre of 

 each light one solid foot of earth, the top of which is hardly within 

 9 inches of the glass, and the top of the plants when planted in 

 it will be within 3 inches of the glass. 



Planting out. Abercrombie, when the temperature is ascer- 

 tained to be right, brings the plants in their pots ; turns over the 

 hills of mould, forming them again properly, and then proceeds 

 to planting. " Turn those in pots clean out, one pot at a time, 

 with the ball of earth whole about the roots, and thus insert one 

 patch of three plants which have grown together, with the ball 

 of earth entire, into the middle of each hill, earthing them neatly 

 round the stems. Also any not in pots, having been pricked 

 into the earth of the bed if required for planting, may be taken 

 up with a small ball of earth, and planted similarly. With water 

 warmed to the air of the bed, give a very light watering about 

 the roots, and shut down the glasses for the present, or till next 

 morning. Shade the plants a little from the mid-day sun a few 

 days till they have taken root in the hills, and cover the glasses 



every evening with large mats." Nicol, before planting, if the 

 beds have settled anywise unequally, rectifies and sets level the 

 frames, by placing boards, slates, or bricks under the low cor- 

 ners, so as to make them correct. He then makes up the out- 

 sides of the bed with dung a few inches higher than the bottoms 

 of the frame, over which he lays some dry litter or fern fronds, 

 and planks at top to walk on. He then takes the pots of plants, 

 each of which are supposed to have got two or three rough 

 leaves, and making a hole in each hill, full large enough to re- 

 ceive the balls, turns them out of the pots as entire as possible, 

 placing them level with the surface of the hill, fitting the earth 

 round their sides, and settling all with a little water. In the case 

 of planting older plants than the above, at a farther advanced 

 period of the season, or such as have quite filled the pots with 

 their roots, the balls may be reduced a little, and the fibres 

 should be singled out, if anywise matted. But the above plants 

 are supposed to have barely filled the pots with roots, and then 

 the balls should be kept entire, that they may not receive a check 

 in transplanting. 



Temperature for fruiting plants. Abercrombie's minimum is 

 55, and maximum in the day time 65, the same as for the seed- 

 bed. M'Phail says, " It appears that during the winter and 

 spring months the medium heat of the air in the frames should 

 be 75, and the maximum heat 80. But when the sun shines 

 the heat of the air in the frames is increased to a much higher de- 

 gree; so that reckoning this heat, the medium for that of the air 

 in the frames may be 80." Gard. retnemb. p. 59. Nicol's 

 medium heat for cucumbers is 60; in sunshine he admits as 

 much air as will keep down the thermometer to 65. Kal. p. 366. 

 Mills, in the fruiting frames, wishes " to have at all times from 

 70 to SO degrees of heat, which I regularly keep up by applying 

 linings of hot dung, prepared one month previously, in the same 

 manner as that for the beds. For the first month I cover the 

 glass with a single mat only ; and as the nights become cold, I 

 increase the covering, using hay, which I put on the glass, and 

 cover that with a single mat. I regulate the heat at night by 

 the warmth of the glass under the hay, for when the glass is 

 warm, which should be in two hours after covering up, a little air 

 is required. When the glass and hay covering are warm, which 

 is easily known by putting the hand under the hay on the glass 

 light, the internal heat of the bed will be about 78 degrees, in 

 which degree of heat the cucumbers have grown in length in 1 6 

 hours one inch and a quarter. I give a little water round the 

 insides of the frames, as often as I find them dry, which causes 

 a fine steam to rise, and I think it better than watering the 

 mould, for if this latter practice is often repeated in winter, 

 when the sun's power is insufficient to absorb the moisture, and 

 the glasses can be but little open to allow the damp to pass off, 

 the earth in a few weeks will lose its vigour, and the roots of 

 the plants will perish. Great care should also be taken, at this 

 season, not to injure the roots by too much heat, which is not 

 less detrimental than too much moisture : they can only be 

 secured by keeping up a regular warmth, just sufficient to expel 

 the damp, which arises in the night from the fermenting dung." 



Linings. The requisite degree of heat, Abercrombie is care- 

 ful to support in the bed when declining, " by timely linings of 

 hot fresh dung, which may be applied to the sides 15 or 18 

 inches in width, and as high as the dung of the bed. Generally 

 line the back part first, and the other in a week, or from 10 days 

 to a fortnight after, as may seem necessary by the degree of 

 heat in the bed. Sometimes if the heat has fallen abruptly 

 below the minimum degree, it may be proper to line both sides 

 moderately, at once to recover the temperature sooner, and with 

 better effect ; but be particularly careful never to over line, 

 which would cause a too violently renewed heat, and steam in 

 the bed. The dung for linings must be fermented, as in first 

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