90 THE VEGETABLE CULTIVATOR. 



few inches of extra earth should be carefully put 

 over them, to within a small distance of their seed 

 leaves. The earth should be previously put in the 

 frame a day or two before wanted, and laid against 

 the inside, back and front, to be used occasionally 

 as wanted ; and if the surface of the intermediate 

 space of the drills or other way is gently stirred, and 

 at times sprinkled with water, rather in a tepid 

 state, it will add considerably to the health and 

 growth of the plants. The outer part of the bed 

 will require attention, by protecting it with a good 

 lining of dry fern or litter, which being well 

 kept up, will in favourable seasons bring the fruit 

 sufficiently forward to cut off of a proper size (per- 

 haps twelve or eighteen inches in length) for table, 

 as such long cucumbers are raised more to please 

 the eye than the palate. But should the weather 

 prove as severe as in January and February 

 1838, it will be necessary to place to the back 

 and front of the frame a good lining of well-pre- 

 pared hot dung. From such hot linings every 

 precaution should be taken to prevent the steam 

 from entering the bed; and here the author has 

 to observe that, during these two critical months, 

 a small thermometer kept in the frame will be of 

 signal service to the young horticulturist in regu- 

 lating the heat according to the sudden changes of 

 the weather. Should the plants have gone on well 

 since the first earthing four or five days back, they 

 will by this time require another, which may be 

 given more freely, and a little added to the open 

 surface of the bed. The plants now have most 

 likely made runners, where laterals (if a good sort) 



