IV.] THE AMERICAN GARDENER. 13 



This salad, as well as the mustard and the rape, may 

 be very conveniently raised in a corner of a hot-bed 

 made for radishes or cabbage-plants. 



217. CUCUMBER. To give minute rules for 

 the propagation and cultivation of this plant, in a 

 country like this, would be waste of time. How- 

 ever, if you w r ish to have them a month earlier 

 than the natural ground will bring them, do this. 

 Make a hole, and put into it a little hot dung ; let 

 ihe hole be under a warm fence. Put 6 inches deep 

 of fine rich earth on the dung. Sow a parcel of 

 seeds, in this earth ; and cover at night with a bit of 

 carpet, or sail cloth, having first fixed some hoops 

 over this little bed. Before the plants show the 

 rough leaf, plant two into a little flower pot, and fill 

 as many pots in this way as you please. Have a 

 larger bed ready to put the pots into, and covered 

 with earth so that the pots may be plunged in the 

 earth up to their tops. Cover this bed like the 

 last. When the plants have got two rough leaves 

 out, they will begin to make a shoot in the middle. 

 Pinch that short off. Let them stand in this bed, till 

 your cucumbers sown in the natural ground come 

 up ; then make some little holes in good rich land, 

 and taking a pot at a time, turn out the ball and fix it 

 in the hole. These plants will bear a month sooner 

 than those sown in the natural ground ; and a square 

 yard will contain 36 pots, and will of course, fur- 

 nish plants for 36 hills of cucumbers, which, if 

 well managed, will keep on bearing till Septem- 

 ber. Those who have hot-bed frames, or hand' 

 lights, will do this matter very easily. The cucum- 

 ber plant is very tender and juicy ; and, therefore, 

 when the seedlings are put into the pots, they should 

 be watered, and shaded for a day or two ; when the 

 balls are turned into the ground, they should he 

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