THE CUCUMBER. 263 



for those who can only command a brick pit and heat 

 from fermenting material with which to produce spring 

 cucumbers. Those who only grow them in summer will 

 find them so accommodating for four or five months 

 of the year that directions specially for that season 

 would be a waste of words. For any one who has a 

 frame, a little fermenting material, such as litter and 

 short grass or leaves, and glass lights, can have little 

 difficulty in rearing them in summer in almost any 

 district ; while in the south the ridge varieties do well 

 in the open air the same as vegetable marrows or 

 pumpkins. And, without adverting to the undesir- 

 ableness of attempting to supply cucumbers through- 

 out the dull winter months in dung-pits, I will now 

 offer some remarks on their winter management in 

 cucumber-houses or stoves heated by hot water. 



WINTER CUCUMBERS. 



Experienced gardeners know very well that, where- 

 ever sufficient space can be afforded in such as a fruit- 

 ing pine-stove where a high temperature is necessary, 

 there is no great difficulty in keeping a tolerably good 

 supply of cucumbers in pots throughout the winter. I 

 am, however, not going to recommend their being mixed 

 up with pines or anything else: although circumstances 

 can be modified to suit different subjects, such is not 

 desirable. And now, where there is a demand for cu- 

 cumbers all through the winter, there is generally a 

 house or pit specially for that purpose. As in the case 

 of the winter-forcing of the vine or any other plant in 

 midwinter, a lean-to house facing due south, with a 

 white back-wall and white-painted woodwork and clear 

 sheet-glass, is the best. And the greatest amount of 



