570 ' PRACTICE OF GARDENING. Pakt III. 



3178. Forming the seed-bed. " A one-light frame," Abercrombie says, "will be large 

 enough for ordinary purposes. Choose a dry sheltered part of the melon-ground, and 

 form a bed for a one-light frame. When high winds are suffered to blow against a 

 cucumber-bed, they have a very powerful effect on it ; for, in that case, the heat in a 

 short time will not only be greatly abated, but also forced and driven into the corners 

 of the frames, and, consequently, some parts thereof are rendered too cold, whilst other 

 parts are made too warm ; and, of course, the plants are all equally endangered, retarded 

 in their growth, and perhaps some, if not all of them, totally destroyed. Therefore, 

 when a cucumber-bed is about to be built, the first object of consideration should be, to 

 have it, as well as possible, sheltered from the high winds and boisterous stormy weather. 

 Having put on the frame, and waited till the bed is fit for moulding, lay in five or six 

 inches depth of the proper earth or compost." 



3179. M'Phail makes up a bed of good dung, four feet high, or a one-light box. 



3180. Nicol builds a bed of dung, carefully fermented, to the height of five feet at back, and four at 

 front, keeping it a foot larger all round than a one-light frame, or about five or six feet by three or 

 three and a half. He then covers with turf; and on that lays fine sand, as free from earth as possible, 

 to the depth of about six inches ; laying it in a sloping manner, corresponding with the glass, and to 

 within six inches of it ; over which he lays an inch or two of dry light earth. 



3181. Alton and Mills also prepare a bed for a one-light box ; the latter forms it on a stratum of wood 

 one foot high for drainage, and eight inches higher in the middle than at the sides, " as the sides are liable, 

 from the weight of the frame, to settle faster than the middle," which causes the hills of earth to crack ; 

 by which, in fruiting-beds more especially, the roots of the plants are greatly injured. 



3182. Sowing. Abercrombie sows some seeds in the layer of the earth, which he 

 spreads over the bed, putting them in half an inch deep. He also sows some seeds in 

 two, three, or more small pots of the same kind of earth, which may be plunged a little 

 into that of the bed. 



3183. M'Phail sows in a pot filled with rich earth, covers about two inches thick, and sets the pots on the 

 surface of the naked dung on the bed. 



3184. Nicol sows immediately after the bed is made, without waiting till the heat arise, which, he says, 

 is losing time, and the opportunity of bringing on vegetation by degrees as the heat rises. He sows in a 

 broad pan four inches deep, or in small pots four or five inches diameter, and as much in depth. These 

 he fills with " fine light earth," or vegetable mould, and covers the seeds two inches. He plunges these 

 to the brim in the back part of the bed (which it will be recollected contains a stratum of earth six inches 

 thick over one of sand, and another of turf), puts on the light, and lets the frame be matted at night in 

 the ordinary way. 



3185. Raising plants from cuttings. M'Phail says, " Instead of raising cucumber- 

 plants from seed, they may be raised from cuttings, and thus kept on from year to year in 

 the following manner : " the method of striking them is this ; take a shoot which is just 

 ready for stopping, cut it off just below the joint behind the joint before which the shoot 

 should have been stopped, then cut smooth the lower end of the shoot or cutting, and 

 stick it into fine leaf or other rich mould about an inch deep, and give it plenty of heat, 

 and shade it from the rays of the sun till it be fairly struck. By this method, as well as 

 by that of laying, cucumber-plants may readily be propagated." 



3186. Mearns, gardener at Shobden Court, near Leominster, propagates his cucumber-plants for a win- 

 ter crop in this way, and " finds, that the plants raised from cuttings are less succulent, and therefore do not 

 so readily damp off, or suffer from the low temperature to which they are liable to be exposed in severe 

 weather ; that they come into bearing immediately as they have formed roots of sufficient strengtli to 

 support their fruit, and do not run so much to barren vine as seedlings are apt to do." He takes the 

 cuttings from the tops of the bearing shoots, and plants them in pots nine inches deep ; half filled with 

 mould. He then waters them, covers the tops of the pots with flat pieces of glass, and plunges them into 

 a gentle bottom heat. " The sides of the pot act as a sufficient shade for the cuttings during the time 

 they are striking, and the flat glass, in this and in similar operations, answers all the purposes of bell-glasses. 

 The cuttings form roots, and are ready to pot offin less than a fortnight." (Hort. Trans, iv. 411.) 



3187. Temperature of the seed-bed. Abercrombie says, " The minimum heat for the 

 cucumber is 58 degrees at the coldest time of night ; in the day-time 65 degrees is suffi- 

 cient for the maximum ; because air admitted when the sun has great influence, will do 

 more good than a higher heat." 



3188. M'Phail says, " If it were possible to keep the heat in the frames alwavs to 80 degrees, with the con- 

 currence of proper air and moisture, I am of opinion that that would be a sufficient heat for the production 

 of the cucumber." 



3189. Nicol keeps the air in the bed to about 65 degrees in the night, allowing a few degrees of a rise in 

 sunshine. 



3190. Alton rears and fruits his plants in a stove, and therefore we shall take no farther notice of his prac- 

 tice at present. 



, 3191. Mills says, " The heat I wish to have in the seed-frame is from 65 to 75 degrees." 



3192. Treatment till removed to the fruiting-bed. "After sowing, Abercrombie con- 

 tinues the glasses on the frame ; giving occasional vent above for the steam to evaporate, 

 that the bed may keep a moderate heat, and not become too violent. The plants will 

 be up in a few days, when it will be proper to admit air daily, but more guardedly, at 

 the upper ends of the lights, which may be raised from half an inch to an inch or two, 

 according to the temperature of the weather, that the plants may not draw up weak, or 

 be injured by the steam. In frosty weather, hang part of the mat over the aperture. 

 When the plants are a little advanced, with the seed-leaves about half an inch broad, 

 take them up, and prick some in small pots of light earth, previously warmed by the 



