CUCUMBERS. 169 



are laid off, and wherever a hill is to be planted, the 

 amount of fertilizer desired is dropped and worked in 

 thoroughly. If commercial or other concentrated fer- 

 tilizer is to be used, send the best hand available to 

 scatter the fertilizer in a three foot circle about the 

 check ; then tell him that his wages depend on the 

 completeness with which he works in the fertilizer ; 

 when he gets through, choose another hand equally as 

 good, and give him to understand that he has to go 

 over the whole field and do the work better than the 

 former laborer did. When he has gone over. the field, 

 put a third man on to it, and impress on him the neces- 

 sity of excelling his predecessors. By this time, if the 

 orders have been emphatic, the fertilizer ma> be 

 worked in sufficiently. We never suffer from over 

 fertilizing in the field, but frequently ruin a crop by 

 improper fertilization. 



Two weeks after fertilizing a field, it is usually safe 

 to plant either the seed or the plants. If the seed is 

 planted, about a dozen should be dropped in a hill. 

 When the plants begin to run, the hill should be re- 

 duced to from two to four plants. Some of the miss- 

 ing hills may be supplied by lifting a part of a full hill 

 on a hoe and setting it to place. If plants are set out, 

 remove the pots and set the ball of earth that was in 

 the pot an inch below the surface of the ground. 



CULTIVATING. 



Whether the seed is planted in the field or plants 

 from a cold frame set out, the land must be in best of 

 tilth. If warm, dry weather follows the time of plant- 

 ing, the first plowing may be delayed ten days, but by 

 this time the cultivator should be used on each side of 

 the row, and a week after this plowing the rows should 

 be crossed. This plowing is not so much to kill out 

 young weeds as to get air into the soil ; and to give 



