CULTIVATION OF CUCUMBERS. 251 



for if, after planting at the usual depth, wet weather 

 should follow, it is almost sure to rot ; if the weath- 

 er is dry, the seed dries out ; if, when favourable to 

 their vegetation, and the plants have advanced so as 

 to be breaking ground, a storm should occur, they 

 generally perish : a northeaster of three or four 

 days' continuance destroys the plants when young, 

 and, in some instances, when more than a week 

 old ; if they are up too early, a late frost is apt to 

 sweep them clean. Seed, to vegetate, requires to 

 be near the surface of the wet soil, not buried deep 

 in it : our ignorance of the weather which will fol- 

 low after planting causes most of our errors ; when 

 planted in a heavy soil, the seed is less liable to rot 

 and dry out than in a sandy one, but the fruit is later. 

 If it happens that there are more plants in a hill than 

 we require, we find it an easy matter to eradicate 

 them with the hoe and fingers ; but it is not so easy 

 to place them in the hills when deficient. 



When the first rough leaves of the plants are 

 about the size of a twenty-five cent piece, a cultiva- 

 tor is run through the rows both ways, and they 

 receive the first hoeing: the plants are also thinned 

 out, so as not to crowd each other. In hoeing, the 

 soil between the plants should not be disturbed ; 

 large weeds (if there are such) should be pulled out, 

 fine soil drawn around the plants up to the seed- 

 leaves, so as to cover the small weeds, and the hill 

 made flat, and not concave. We are careful not to 

 hoe while the plants are very young ; for, if a storm 

 should occur shortly after the operation has been 

 performed, the hills soak in too much water, which 

 is injurious. Ten or twelve days after the first hoe- 

 ing, the plants, if good, are thinned to six or eight in 

 a hill, leaving the largest ones, and, if possible, three 

 or four inches apart. About eighteen days after the 

 first hoeing, or about the time when single blossoms 

 open, we run a one-horse plough twice through a 

 row each way (if the ground is hard, three times), 



