26 



CUCURBITACEjE. IV. CUCUMIS. 



noon. 



June 



from 02 to 85 from 80 to 98 from 67 to 90 



July 61 



August 60 



September 69 



October 64 



November 62 



December 65 



79 



72 



78 80 



80 74 



81 71 



82 65 



88 64 



105 69 



96 70 



100 72 



101 68 



92 61 



77 58 



95 

 89 

 97 

 89 

 80 

 71 



" By the heat described in these tables, and plenty of water, 

 the cucumber plants, the seeds of which were sown on the 22d 

 day of October, were maintained in a healthy fruit-bearing state 

 in the brick frame of my inventing, from the month of January 

 to the beginning of December." The melon plants in the ma- 

 nagement of the author, were kept in about the same degree of 

 heat which he has given for the culture of the cucumber, in the 

 forcing frames; and he ventures to predict that if any person 

 keep melon or cucumber plants in nearly the same degrees of 

 heat, as is set down in the foregoing plain tables, and manage the 

 plants well in other respects, the way to do which he thinks he 

 has clearly pointed out in this treatise, he is persuaded they will 

 not fail in having success. He adds, that notwithstanding the 

 objections of some who have not been successful in making trial 

 of his bed, " it is now generally approved of, and in practice by 

 numbers of the best gentlemen's gardeners in the kingdom, and 

 by various market gardeners in the neighbourhood of London." 

 West's pit, however, seems superior to M'Phail's, as requiring 

 much less dung, presenting a much more neat and orderly ap- 

 pearance, and giving a greater command of temperature. 



Cultivation of the cucumber in a common pit without Jlues. 

 Some form a narrow dung-bed along the middle of each pit, 

 leaving room for adding a lining on each side when the heat de- 

 clines. The method succeeds very well late in the season ; but 

 at an early period the sinking of the bed from the glass leaves 

 the plants at a great distance from the light. 



Cultivation of the cucumber in stoves. " Cucumber plants," 

 M'Phail observes, " will grow in a hot-house, where the pine- 

 apple is cultivated ; but they will not be very long lived there, 

 for that is not a healthy climate for them." " In August sow the 

 seeds in boxes filled with vegetable or other light earth, and 

 place them on shelves on the back side of the hot-house, where 

 the sun may not be interrupted from shining on them in the 

 short days. They may perhaps produce a few fruit in the month 

 of December or January." Gard. rememb. p. 301. Aber- 

 orombie says, " some gardeners, ambitious of early fruit, try a 

 sowing in the stove under the disadvantages of December. 

 Fruiting this plant in the house in narrow boxes 3 feet long, and 

 full 20 inches deep, may be found more commodious than pots. 

 The boxes may stand upon the crib-trellising over the flues, or 

 be suspended near the back wall, 18 inches from the upper tier 

 of lights, so as not to shade the regular house plants : this is the 

 best situation for a very early crop. The plants may be origi- 

 nated in small pots, plunged into the bark-bed, in order to be 

 transplanted with a half ball of earth into the borders. Those 

 who aim to have fruit at Christmas introduce seedlings about the 

 middle of August." " The chief deviation from the course of the 

 hot-bed is, that the plants must be trained in the house up- 

 right, for which purpose form a light temporary trellis of laths. 

 Give water every other day at least." Pract. Gard. p. 618. 

 We have already quoted the particulars of Alton's method of 

 raising cucumber plants in August, with a view to their being 

 fruited in the stove through the winter. We now subjoin the 

 remainder of that paper. '-' The plants being raised on a well 

 prepared one light hot-bed, when the cotyledons or seed-leaves 

 became nearly of full growth, the plants were potted out, two 

 into each pot, known to gardeners about London by the name 



of upright thirty-twos. When these pots became filled with 

 roots, the plants were again shifted into larger ones, called six- 

 teens, and removed from the seed-bed into a three light frame, 

 with a sufficient bottom heat to allow a considerable portion of 

 air being given day and night, both in the front and back of the 

 frame. About the middle of September, the plants having again 

 filled their pots with roots, and become stocky, were taken 

 from the frame to the stove, and after a few days received the 

 last shifting into larger pots of the following dimensions : at top 

 14 inches over, the bottom 10 inches across, and 12 inches deep, 

 all inside measure ; each pot at equal distances apart, having 

 three side drain holes near the bottom, and a larger one in the 

 centre of the bottom, and containing about three pecks of solid 

 earth. The cucumber plants were fruited this season in a 

 pinery. On the front edge of the back flue of this stove, a 

 fascia-boarding, 6 inches deep, was affixed the whole length of 

 the building, forming all along a trough or inclosure for a re- 

 serve of compost, after the exhaustion of the mould in the pots 

 had taken place. The pots were now placed in regular order 

 upon the mould-trough over the flue at 3 feet apart, and re- 

 mained in this station for good, for succession. A setting of the 

 second sowing was placed upon the end flues of the house ; un- 

 derneath each pot were set an upright circular garden pan, 6 

 inches deep, and 14 inches in diameter, which being filled with 

 earth, the pots were plunged therein about 2 inches deep, and 

 the drain holes being sufficiently covered with mould, served as 

 outlets to the roots. From this time the fire heat of the stove 

 was kept day and night at 60 or 65 of Fahrenheit's thermo- 

 meter, varying only a few degrees when the sudden influences of 

 the sun or steam produced an additional glow of climate. The 

 plants being now established and vigorous, required stopping the 

 laterals and fruit ; and these second and third lateral shoots in 

 their turn were stopped also, and the blossoms from time to time 

 set, as usual, for succession of supply. Waterings were neces- 

 sary only when the surface of the earth was evidently dry, and 

 light sprinklings of soft water, tempered in the stove, were occa- 

 sionally given over the leaves of the plants and path with good 

 effect. Steam from a well regulated flue was considered always 

 favorable to the cultivation, but applied sparingly on account of 

 its scalding effect upon the leaves, when the vapour proved 

 overheated. For the mildew, flower of brimstone, coloured 

 leaf-green by a little soot, has been applied with the best suc- 

 cess in all stages of the disease, and copious fumigations of 

 tobacco were used for the destruction of the several species of 

 the aphis tribe. Under this simple practice winter cucumbers 

 have been produced abundantly in the months of October, No- 

 vember, December, and part of January, in all the royal gar- 

 dens of His Majesty during a series of years." Aiton ex encycl. 

 gard. p. 642, 643. 



Cultivation of the cucumber in Week's patent frame. Only 

 two instances in which this ingenious invention has been tried are 

 known to us, both of which are mentioned at the end of " Week's 

 Forcer's Assistant." The chief objection to it is, that the bed or 

 stratum of earth in which the plants are grown, being but of mo- 

 derate depth, and surrounded by air above and below, is ex- 

 tremely difficult to retain at an equable moisture. There are 

 several other structures for growing cucumbers and melons in 

 besides those mentioned above ; but none of them appear to us 

 to be of much importance. 



On a mode of producing a crop of cucumbers during whiter. 

 James Reed, (Gard. mag. 3. p. 23.) places his winter cucumber 

 bed in a vinery. In this vinery the air could be admitted both 

 by the front and top lights. About the 20th of September the 

 cucumber seeds were sown on a moderate hot-bed in the open 

 air, and heated in the usual manner until they were ready to 

 ridge out. This generally happened about the beginning of 

 8 



