CULTIVATION OF THE CUCUMBER IN THE OPEN AIR. 511 



rich mould. The glasses are then set upon it about three feet distant from 

 each other, and when the mould gets warm under them, the plants are 

 turned out of the pots with their balls whole, and plunged in the mould 

 under the glasses, and a little water given them to settle the mould about 

 their roots, the glasses set over them, and after they have made roots, and 

 begin to grow, in fine days they are raised a little on one side to let the 

 plants have the free air ; and as the weather gets warmer and warmer, air 

 is given more plentifully, to harden the plants, so that they may be able to 

 bear the open air, and run from under the glasses. When the plants begin 

 to fill the glasses, they are trained out horizontally, and the glasses are set 

 upon bricks or such like props, to bear them from the plants. After 

 this the plants require nothing more but to be supplied with water when 

 the summer showers are not sufficient, and to stop them when they 

 become deficient of branches, and thin them of leaves or branches when 

 they are likely to be overcrowded. In warm summers and in warm situa- 

 tions, by this mode of management, the plants will bear plentifully for about 

 two months, provided they be not attacked by insects or weakened by dis- 

 eases. If the situation should require shelter, a row of runner beans four 

 feet from the bed at the north side and ends, and a row of some crop that 

 will not grow more than three feet high, on the south side of the bed, and 

 about the same distance from it, will attain this object. The surface of 

 the ridge, for some time after it is made, should be covered with straw to 

 shoot off the wet, and the leading branches must be pegged to the soil, but 

 not stopped. (Ayres.) 



1083. Increasing the atmospheric heat of the soil. When cucumbers are 

 grown on the natural ground, as they are extensively at Sandy in Bedford- 

 shire, a considerable portion of heat may be worked into it (see 956) by arti- 

 ficial means. Thus, when the bed has been marked out, let the soil be dug 

 over in the evening of every sunny day, and then either raked perfectly 

 smooth, or covered with mats or litter ; in this way the radiation of accu- 

 mulated heat being nightly intercepted, a sufficient quantity of heat will in 

 a week or ten days be collected, to raise the temperature 8 or 10 degrees 

 above that of the adjoining soil. (Ayres's Treatise, p. 40.) 



1084. Cucumbers against a south wall. " Cucumbers will succeed beau- 

 tifully, trained against a south wall, if planted in a little good soil to start 

 them ; afterwards they will flourish in the soil of the border, without fur- 

 ther trouble, especially if the summer should be warm." {Duncan's Cu- 

 cumber Culture, p. 83.) Warm coverings at night, so as to prevent the ra- 

 diation of heat acquired through the day, would, in this case, and also in that 

 of cucumbers grown in ridges, prove very beneficial. 



1085. Growing cucumbers on balconies, or in court-yards. " Those who 

 have no garden ground, but have yards or balconies on a south, east, or west 

 exposure, may plant them in very rich compost, in large pots, or boxes 

 eighteen inches or two feet square, and train the plants to the wall. They 

 will require precisely the same treatment in watering, stopping, &c., as 

 directed for pots in the cucumber house. In this way those who have no 

 garden may have the pleasure of growing their own cucumbers." (Ayres's 

 Treatise, p. 41.) 



1086. Watering cucumbers in the open garden. During the time the 

 plants are under the glasses, they may be watered in the same way as if 

 they were under frames ; but after the glasses are raised, and the plants 



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