Book I. CULTURE OF THE CUCUMBER. 



579 



In all other respects, the culture of the cucumber or melon, on M'Phail'e brick-bed, corresponds with the 

 culture of these fruits on common dung-beds. 



3249. The cultivation of tlie cucumber in West's frame (fig. 230.), differs from the 

 common mode ; but it being attended with less risk, in our opinion, this frame or pit 

 is superior to M'Phail's, as requiring much less dung, presenting a much more neat 

 and orderly appearance, and giving a greater command of temperature. 



3250. Cultivation of the cucumber in a common pit without flues. Some form a narrow 

 dung-bed along the middle of such a pit, leaving room for adding a lining on each side 

 when the heat declines. This method succeeds very well late in the season ; but at an 

 early period the sinking of the bed from the glass leaves the plants at a great distance from 

 the light. 



3251. Cultivation of the cucumber i?i stoves. " Cucumber-plants," M'Phail observes, 

 " will grow in a hot-house where the pine-apple is cultivated ; but they will not be very 

 long-lived there, for that is not a healthy climate for them." In August, sow the seeds 

 in boxes filled with vegetable or other light earth, and place them on shelves in the back 

 side of the hot-house, where the sun may not be interrupted from shining on them in the 

 short days. They may, perhaps, produce a few fruit in the month of December or 

 January. (Gard. Rem. p. 301.) 



3252. Abercrombie says, " Some gardeners, ambitious of early fruit, try a sowing in the stove under the 

 disadvantages of December. For fruiting this plant in the house, narrow boxes, three feet long, and 

 full twenty inches deep, may be found more commodious than pots. The boxes may stand upon the crib- 

 trellising over the flues, or be suspended near the back wall eighteen inches from the upper tier of lights, 

 so as not to shade the regular house-plants : this is the best situation for a very early crop. The plants 

 may be originated in small pots, plunged into the bark-bed, in order to be transplanted with a ball of 

 earth into the boxes. Those who aim to have fruit at Christmas, introduce seedlings about the middle of 

 August. The chief deviation from the course of the hot-bed is, that the plants must be trained in the 

 house upright ; for which purpose form a light temporary trellis of laths. Give water every other day 

 at least." [Pract. Gard. p. 618.) 



3253. Alton's method of raising cucumber-plants in August, with a view to their being fruited in the stove 

 through the winter, has been already given. (3174.) We now subjoin the remainder of that excellent paper. 



3254. The plants being raised on a well-prepared one-light hot-bed ; when the cotyledons or seed- 

 leaves became nearly of full growth, the plants were potted out two into each pot, known to gardeners 

 about London by the name of upright thirty-twos. When these pots became filled with roots, the plants 

 were again shifted into larger ones, called sixteens, and removed from the seed-bed into a three-light 

 frame, with a sufficient bottom-heat to allow a considerable portion of air being given day and night, 

 both in the front and back of the frame. About the middle of September, the plants having again filled 

 their pots with roots, and become stocky, were taken from the frame to the stove, and after a few days 

 received the last shifting into larger pots of the following dimensions : at the top fourteen inches over; 

 the bottom ten inches across, and twelve inches deep, all inside measure ; each pot at equal distances 

 apart, having three side drain-holes near the bottom, and a larger one in the centre of the bottom, and 

 containing about three pecks of solid earth. 



3255. The plants ivere fruited in a pinery. On the front edge of the back flue of this stove, a fascia- 

 boarding, six inches deep, was affixed, the whole length of the building, forming all along a trough or 

 enclosure for a reserve of compost after the exhaustion of the mould in the pots had taken place. The 

 pots were now placed in regular order upon the mould-trough over the flue, at three feet apart, and re- 

 mained in this station for good, for succession. A setting of the second sowing was placed upon the end 

 flues of the house ; underneath each pot was set an upright circular garden-pan, six inches deep, and 

 fourteen inches diameter, which being filled with earth, the pots were plunged therein about two inches 

 deep, and the drain-holes being sufficiently covered with mould, served as outlets to the roots. 



3256. Temperature. The fire-heat of the stove was kept day and night at sixty to sixty-five degrees 

 Fahrenheit's thermometer, varying only a few degrees when the sudden influence of sun or steam pro- 

 duced an additional glow of climate. The plants being now established and vigorous, required stopping 

 for laterals and fruit j and these second and third lateral shoots in their turn were stopped also, and the 

 blossoms from time to time set, as usual, for succession of supply. 



32o/. Waterings were necessary only when the surface of the earth was evidently dry, and light 

 sprinklings of soft water, tempered in the stove, were occasionally given over the leaves of the plants and 

 path with good effect 



3258. Steam from a well regulated flue was considered always favorable to the cultivation, but applied 

 sparingly on account of its scalding effect upon the leaves when the vapor proved over-heated. 



3259. Diseases and Insects. For the mildew, flower cf brimstone, colored leaf-green by a little soot, has 

 been applied with the best success in all stages of the disease, and copious fumigations of tobacco were 

 used for the destruction of the several species of the aphis tribe. 



: 3260. Result. Under this simple practice, winter cucumbers have been produced abundantly in the 

 months of October, November, December, and part of January, in all the royal gardens of His Majesty 

 during a series of years. 



3261. Cultivation of the cucumber in Weeks' 's patent frame. (1553.) We know only of 

 two instances in which this ingenious invention has been tried, both of which are men- 

 tioned at the end of Weeks's Forcer s Assistant. The chief objection to the plan is, that the 

 bed or stratum of earth in which the plants are grown being but of moderate depth, and 

 surrounded by air above and below, is extremely difficult to retain at an equable 

 moisture. 



3262. Growing the cucumber under hand-glasses. The following method is given by 

 M'Phail as that generally practised : " The seeds are sown some time about the middle 

 of April in a cucumber or melon bed, and when they come up, they are potted out into 

 small pots, two or three plants in each pot, and are kept properly watered, and stopped 

 at the first or second joint. About tie middle of May, a warm situation where the 

 mould is very rich is pitched on, and a trench is dug out about two feet deep, three feet 

 broad, and the length is proportioned according to the number of lights it is intended 

 for. This trench is filled with good warm dung, and when the dung is come to its full 



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