112 The Kitchen Garden. [Mar. 



MARCH. 



Work to be done in the Kitchen Garden^ 



Care of early Cucumbers and Mekns, 



EXAMINE the ftate of the cucumber and melon hot- 

 beds, and fee if they are of a proper degree of heat^ 

 lo as to preferve the plants in a flate of free growth. 



You muft let the heat be lively, but moderate, by 

 which means they will fnew fruit plentifully, and thefe 

 will fwell freely, and grow to an handfome iize. 



This mufl be done by applying a lining of new horfe- 

 dung to the back or front fide of the bed, as you fhall 

 fee occafion ; but if the heat is not very much declined, 

 it will be proper to line only one fide at a time, but line 

 the oppofite fide ten or twelve days after. Make the 

 linings about eighteen inches wide, and as high as five or 

 fix inches up the fides of the frame j lay two inches of 

 earth over the top, to keep th^ileam down, for the rea- 

 fon mentioned laft month. 



Let the plants have frefh air every day, by raifing the 

 upper end of the glafi'es from about half an inch, to one, 

 two, or three in height, in proportion to the heat in the 

 bed, and warmnefs of the weather. 



Refrefti them now and then with water ; let this be 

 given very moderately, and in a mild funny day; the 

 bell time for doing this is from ten to tv/a o'clock. 



Cover the glafi'es with mats every night, and let them 

 be uncovered in the morning about an hour, or there- 

 about, after fun-rife ; or, if a funny morning,, as foon 

 as the fun fhines fully on the frames. 



As the early plants, raifed lall month, will have now 

 advanced confiderably into fruitful runners, and ihew 

 fruit abundantly, let the runners or vine be trained out 

 regularly along the furface of the bed at equal diftances, 

 and peg them down neatly with fmall hooked flicks ; and 

 according as the young fruit come into blofibm, do not. 

 ^il, at this early feafon, to fet or impregnate the female 

 cr fruit blofibms with the male flowers, agreeable to ths 

 rules and method advifed iu the work, of J^ril, 



Sofua 



