2o6 .The Kitchen Garden. [May. 



Cucumbers to pickle. 



Sow cucumbers for pickling: tht-fe are to be Town in 

 the natural ground ; not however till the lall week in this 

 month. But if the fealon be old, cr very wet, it would 

 be proper to defer putting in the feed till ihe full week in 

 June. 



•Prepare for thefe feeds a piece of rich free ground, and 

 divide it into beds of five or fix feet wide ; allowing twelve 

 inches between bed and bed for an alley ; then mark out the 

 holes for the i^sd, exadlly along the middle of each bed, 

 allowing three feet and a half between hole and hole. 

 Dig the places for the holes, breaking the earth well with 

 the fpade : and form them with the hand bke a fliallow 

 bafon, about an inch and a half deep, and ten or twelve 

 inches over ; and fow in fhe middle of each hole eignt or ten 

 feeds, covering them near half an inch deep with earth. 



After the feed is fown, if the weaiher Ihould prove hot 

 and dry, it will be proper to fprinklc the holes a little 

 with water ; but this muil be given very moderately, jull 

 enough to moiften the earth a little, for t.:o much moiilure 

 would ret the feed ; but when the fetd is geiminated, and 

 the young plants coming up, give water freely in dry 

 warm weather. 



When the plants have been come up about a fortnight, 

 they mufl be thinned ; and leave no more than five or fix 

 of the bell plants in every hole. \ 



When a perfon is ftraightened for room, he may fow the 

 pickling cucumbers between the rows of early caulificnvers, 

 or the like, allowing the fam.e diflance as above ; and the ^, 

 cauliflowers will be molHy all gone, by that time the cu- 

 cumber plants begin to pufh the runners. 



In fowing picklers, it is the praftice in cold wet feafons, 

 with many of the London gardeners, to fow the feed on ' 

 a flight hot-bed : and when the plants have been up about "] 

 a week, or ten days, to tranfplant them. The method is 

 this ; get feme new horfe-dung, and make a hot-bed about 

 a yard or four feet wide, and eighreen inches thick, the 

 length to be in proportion to the quantity of plants you 

 would ralfe. As foon as the bed is made, lay on about 

 three inches depth of earth ; then either with a thick blunt- 

 ended dibble, or with your fingers contratled, make holes 

 about an inch wide, and liaif an inch, or near an inch 

 deep, and about an inch and a half afunder, dropping 



eight 



