THE CUCUMBER. 889 



of the" plants is prebisely the same. The first crop of 

 cucumbers is generally sown in the end of December, 

 or the beginning of January ; a second in March, and 

 a third in June. In summer, cucumber plants, after 

 thoy have been fairly established, require scarcely any 

 other attention than to thin them out occasionally, and 

 to supply them with water. 



Cucumbers, particularly the prickly sorts, are often 

 raised in the warmer months under hand-glasses. A 

 cavity is mad^ in a border in front of a wall or other 

 warm place, and is filled with hot dung. This dung is 

 covered with earth, and two or three plants are put into 

 it, and sheltered with a hand-glass. They are watered 

 and dressed from time to time ; and by this means a 

 sufficient supply of small cucumbers, or girJsins, is ob- 

 tained for pickling. 



In the southern counties of England, pickling cucum- 

 bers are easily raised without any artificial heat, being 

 sown in drills in the open ground. The earth is made^ 

 fine and level, and shallow circular hollows are formed 

 with the hand, a foot wide, and half an inch deep in 

 the middle. The distance between each hollow is three 

 feet and half, and the distance between the rows iBve 

 or six feet. Eight or ten seeds are deposited in each 

 cavity. This is done in the beginning of June. When 

 the plants appear, they are thinned out to three or four, 

 the weakest or least healthy being rejected. They are 

 watered occasionally, according to the state of the wea- 

 ther. The cucumbers are not expected nor wished to 

 attain a large size ; they are gathered chiefly from the 

 middle to the end of August. Vast quantities of these 

 open-ground girkins are taken to the London market. 

 The village of Sandy, in Bedfordshire, has been known 



