VEGETABLE GROWING 371 



ample. After planting give a good watering with tepid water, and shut down the light. 

 It may be well to shade a little in hot sunshine, but the glass should be covered with 

 mats at night. In a couple of weeks tiny white roots will be seen coming out from the 

 mound of soil. Then another inch or so may be added all over the bed, and that will 

 suffice for the season. A gentle watering should be given each other day, and the leafage 

 syringed each afternoon just as the sun is going off. 



After Culture consists chiefly in keeping shoots fairly thin, admitting a little air, fre- 

 quent dampings or syringings, and should green-fly appear on the leaves, giving an occa- 

 sional smoking with tobacco, filling the frame with smoke, and covering it up close for a 

 few hours, when no doubt the insects will be found dead. A hot-bed of this description 

 should not be made up until the middle of April, as by the time the heat is gone the sun 

 will be warm enough to satisfy the plants' needs. Attacks of red spider or thrips on the 

 leaves, causing them to turn brown and wither up, are the result chiefly of keeping the 

 soil and plants too dry. 



House Culture. For forcing Cucumbers early the best description of house is one that 

 is low and narrow, having beds on either side of soil on which the plants may be grown, 

 and plenty of hot-water piping to keep up a good heat. But where there is only a small 

 house with little heat the beginner should, as for a frame, purchase strong plants in pots 

 from a florist rather than attempt to raise them, as that involves so much trouble and 

 loss of time. In such a house a very large flower-pot or a box 12 inches wide and broad, 

 and 10 inches deep, will do for the soil, or that may be with some turf at the bottom and 

 sides built up in the form of a mound, 2 feet across and 12 inches deep in the middle, the 

 plants being put out in or on these things singly. If pits or boxes be used they should 

 have large holes in them to allow water to percolate through. The best drainage 

 consists of rough pieces of old broken turf, the soil as advised for frames being placed 

 upon it. If there be no artificial heat in the house it will be best to wait before 

 planting until the end of May, when strong plants may be put out safely. Such plants 

 after they make a strong leading shoot, which at 12 inches long has to be pinched back, 

 soon produce several shoots. These must be trained to wires or laths secured just about 

 10 inches under or below the glass roof, and in time these shoots will cover a large 

 area in this way. It will be needful occasionally to cut or pinch out some of the non- 

 fruitful shoots, or otherwise the plants will become far too crowded. Male flowers, which 

 are not fruit producers, come first and numerously. Female flowers appear on the points of 

 the fruit, and usually open after the fruits are from i to 2 inches in length. It is needful 

 to fertilise these by using pollen from the male flowers only when seed fruits are needed, 

 but to get proper fruits for table, fertilising the flower is wrong, as the fruits are less fitted 

 for eating. 



House Cucumbers need frequent syringings, indeed quite twice daily, except when the 

 weather is dull and cold. The door of the house where the plants are may be partially 

 open during the day, but must be shut close up at night. Damp down then to 

 generate a moist atmosphere which the plants like, whilst plants thus grown will 

 need a liberal watering every other day. Later, when several fruits have been out, it is 

 well to make some weak liquid manure and give them a good watering with that at least 

 once a week. It is wise, however, in all cases not to allow water to come into close contact 

 with the main stems. 



Varieties of Cucumber for glass culture are numerous, amongst the best being Lockie's 

 Perfection, Telegraph, Rochford's Market, Peerless, Matchless, and Sensation, the latter 

 three being specially good for exhibition. For ordinary frame culture Lockie's Perfection 

 and Telegraph are the best. 



Endive. This is a leaf salad, hardier than Lettuce, and suited only for winter use. 

 When properly grown and blanched white, the leaf hearts of the plants make excel- 

 lent food. One sowing of seed usually suffices for ordinary needs. That sowing may be 

 made about the third week in July, thinly, in a bed in the open ground. When the plants 

 are strong they should be lifted carefully and dibbled out in rows 12 inches apart, on 

 borders or beds made to slope somewhat to the south. There, needing only an occasional 

 hoeing, they remain and become quite strong. There are two forms, the Curled and the 

 Broad-leaved or Batavian. Both are hardy. When fully grown the former is best 

 blanched by covering the plants close on a dry day with boards or slates, tiles, or 

 similar materials, as by thus excluding light and air the hearts become white and tender. 

 When such is the case they can be cut and eaten. The Batavian Endive, being of more 

 erect habit, can be blanched by tying up the leaves closely. A second planting rather 

 later can usually be made from the one sowing, and thus a succession is obtained. In 

 some cases, plants when of full size are lifted with balls of soil attached to the roots, 

 and blocked in close together in a dark frame, or cellar, or outhouse, but kept absolutely 

 dark, and in that way are easily blanched. Some, failing other conveniences, may be put, 

 a dozen at a time, into large boxes, which can be covered up close with lids or newspapers. 

 Snowfalls, succeeded by frosts, are injurious to Endives, hence some protection given 



