390 FORCING GARDEN. 



to furnish 10,000 bushels of drilled cucumbers in one 

 week. Cucumbers may be procured in a hot-house 

 during the winter months. For this purpose the seed- 

 lings are not raised till the month of August, and they 

 are prevented from expending their energies in the pro- 

 duction of blossom or fruit till they have been intro- 

 duced into the stove. Their stems -are then firm, and, 

 as Mr. Knight remarks, the plants possess within them- 

 selves a quantity of accumulated sap. 



Gourds, species or varieties of the species of the 

 genus Cucurhita, may be grown like drilled cucumbers, 

 or trained against walls or on pales. Though occasion- 

 ally «eed as esculents, they are regarded chiefly as cu- 

 riosities, the fruit of some kinds being very ornamental. 

 The Succada ( Qicader, Cucurbita ovifera), or vegetable 

 marrow, is a very useful sort, _and in request for the 

 table, being eaten stewed with white sauce or mashed 

 like turnips. It may be raised in an exhausted melon- 

 frame 'or pit; or it may be sown under a hand-glass, 

 and afterwards transplanted into a good aspect, and 

 trained against a wall or trellis. The tender tops of 

 any of the edible Cucurbitacese, boiled as greens or 

 spinach, form a delicate vegetable. Melons and cucum- 

 bers, though requiring for their cultivation in the Eng- 

 lish climate the protection of glass and walls, together 

 with the highest degree of horticultural skill, to bring to 

 a maturity, at which they are very inferior in flavor, ripen 

 in the open air and attain great perfection under the burn- 

 ing midsummer sun of the United States, especially the 

 midclle and southern portions. Information relative to 

 the various kinds and best modes of culture will Jbe found 

 among the subjects included in the Kitchen Garden. 



