84 CBE S SC U C U MB E E. 



CHESS. 



This is an early spring salad, used either alone, or mixed 

 with lettuce and other salad plants to make them piquant. 



It should be sown as early in the spring as the ground 

 is in working order. Sow thickly in drills six or eight 

 inches apart, making successive sowings at intervals of a 

 week or ten days apart. Cut it for use when three or four 

 inches high. 



There are six or eight varieties, but the curled-leaved is 

 the most useful, as it can be used for garnishing as well as 

 for salads. 



CUCUMBER. 



Cucumbers require a very rich, warm, moist soil to grow 

 them well. 



To forward them and have them early, the seeds should 

 be sown in small flower-pots, one seed hi each, from the 

 first to the 15th of April, and then placed in a cool frame, 

 keeping the sashes close and protecting them with cover- 

 ings if the nights are cool, until the seeds come up, which 

 will be in five or six days. After sowing the seeds they 

 should be watered with milk-warm water, cold water 

 having a tendency to rot them by chilling the soil. After 

 the seeds come up, air should be given every sunny day 

 from nine o'clock .in the morning until three or four o'clock 

 in the afternoon, by tilting the sashes or drawing them 

 down three or four inches. 



In three or four weeks' time, or when they have two or 

 three rough leaves, the plants will be ready for transplant- 

 ing out-of-doors, in hills four to six ,feet apart each way, 

 putting three plants in a hill. Each hill should have one 

 or two shovelfuls of well-rotted manure, well incorporated 



