108 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



Mr. Moore. The cucumbers that market-gardeners find 

 the most profitable are the "White Spine," and similar 

 varieties. When you send cucumbers to market, a cucumber 

 is a cucumber, long or short. Those that are from six to 

 eight inches long are the most profitable ones to grow. I 

 think you can grow more inches of those shorter cucumbers 

 than you can of the long ones. 



Now, in regard to growing vegetables in these low houses, 

 one thing is certain : that there never has been as good lettuce, 

 as I am informed and believe from my own observation, grown 

 in those houses as there has been in hot-beds, or as is grown 

 in hot-beds in the town of Arlington, which, perhaps, contains 

 the most successful market-gardeners in the State. They find 

 that they cannot grow as good lettuce in low houses as they 

 can in hot-beds. I do not know any reason for it, but it is 

 certainly a fact that it does not grow as well. I am not grow- 

 ing lettuce under glass, but I am making arrangements, as 

 soon as I can get an abundant supply of water, to raise vege- 

 tables under glass on a somewhat extensive scale. I am run- 

 ning a green-house. I have been to Mr. Strong's green-house 

 a number of times, and I found, to my surprise, a very 

 uniform degree of heat in that house. The house covers, 

 perhaps, half an acre, and the heating apparatus is all on the 

 lower side. I supposed the upper part of the house would 

 be very much hotter than the lower part, as heat rises ; but 

 those brakes cause a downward current of the air as it goes 

 up where the ventilators are, and there is a very uniform 

 degree of heat in that house. I was astonished to find it so.- 

 There is no doubt of another thing : that in a house con- 

 structed as that is, you have less surface exposed to the cold 

 air. How well I should like such a house to grow plants in 

 is more than I can say. It is like any lean-to house, with 

 different sections in the roof. I am growing my plants in a 

 lean-to green-house of moderate size, and am growing them 

 as well as I can, with the help of my son, without the assist- 

 ance of any professional gardener ; and I will simply say that 

 there is no great mystery about growing anything under glass. 

 The only thing is to use a little common sense, work a little 

 more brains, as all farmers should in cultivating their farms. 

 If they would use more brains and less muscle, I think they 



