200 GARDENING FOR PROFIT. 



cumber plants have attained two or three of their rough 

 leaves, which will be in about three weeks from the time 

 of sowing, they are planted out in the open ground in 

 hills three feet apart each way. The hills should have 

 been previously prepared, by mixing thoroughly with the 

 coil in each, a shovelful of well-rotted manure. 



It is always better to plant in the afternoon rather than 

 during the early part of the day, as the coolness and 

 moisture at night enable the plants to recuperate from 

 the effects of removal. If the weather is hot and dry, it 

 is safer to give each hill a thorough watering ones, imme- 

 diately after planting. I have recommended sods in 

 preference to flower-pots for starting the Cucumbers, 

 inasmuch as they are not only procurable in all places, 

 but our experience sliDws that the sod is even better than 

 the flower-pot ; it better retains moisture, and there is a 

 freshness about sod in which the roots of all plants love 

 to revel, and which no composts we can prepare can ever 

 equal. 



It will be seen that the expense of growing Cucumbers 

 in this manner is considerable ; to grow enough for an 

 acre about 5,000 hills it will require the use of twenty 

 three by six foot sashes, and the preparation of the 

 sods and attention in airing, etc., until they are fit to 

 plant, will involve ten times more expense than simply 

 sowing the seed in the hills ; but all such expenditures 

 are well returned, for it is safe to say that the profits 

 would always be at least three times more by this plan 

 than by the other. The average receipts are $500 per 

 acre, working expenses probably $250, and the crop is off 

 in time for Turnips or Spinach as a second crop. 



The Cucumber is a vegetable perhaps better fitted than 

 any other for Southern market gardeners. There is no 

 doubt that by the forwarding process above described, it 

 could be had in marketable condition in the neighborhood 

 of Charleston or Savannah, at least a month before it 



