V. CUCUMBER. 



and, though here is a great deal of detail, though here are 

 a great number of things to do, there is much more of 

 words than of deeds in the thing : it takes two or three 

 sentences to describe how a plant is to be put into of 

 turned out of a pot -, but the act itself is performed in 

 half a minute. Care ought to be taken that there be not 

 too great a quantity of vines in the bed j for, if the mass 

 of leaves be too great, they shade part of the vines, shade 

 the blossoms and the fruit ; and, instead of having more 

 fruit from the abundance of vines, you have, perhaps, 

 none at all. This overstocking of the bed with vines is 

 a great and prevalent error. For my part, I think one 

 plant enough for each hill, and I never kept but one in a 

 hill, and, if I put two into a pot, it was by way of pre- 

 caution lest one should fail. One will bring more weight 

 of fruit than two, two more than three, and so on, till 

 you come to a number that would give you no fruit at all. 

 The plants thus crowded, rob one another -, their roots in- 

 terfere with those of each other. They cease to bear 

 sooner than they would if they stood singly j and, in 

 short, my experience and observation induce me strongly 

 to urge the reader never to have in a hot-bed, whether of 

 cucumber or melon, more than one plant in a light. As 

 the season advances, a greater proportion of air is to be 

 given, of course, and there is to be less covering in the 

 night-time, dependant, however, more on the state of the 

 weather than on the precise time of the year ; for we 

 have frequently mild weather in February and severe 

 weather in March. When the weather becomes such 

 as that water will have the chill taken from it by being- 

 placed under a south wall or in a hot-bed, water thus 

 prepared, may do very well j but, until then, the water 



