328 GARDENING FOR PLEASURE. 



be prepared in the same manner as for Lima Beans, 

 but set three feet apart, dropping five or six seeds in 

 each hill. Cucumbers may be sown about the middle of 

 May, and in succession, every three or four weeks, until 

 July. The White Spine and Long Green Prickly are 

 favorite varieties. The Gherkin or Burr is by some used 

 for pickling. 



FORCING CUCUMBERS. The forcing house shown at 

 page 267 as suitable for Strawberry forcing, can be made 

 equally available for forcing Cucumbers, either during 

 the entire winter or spring season, or to succeed the 

 early forced crops of vegetables or fruits in spring. 



If wanted for forcing Cucumbers during the fall or 

 winter, the seed should be sown in the greenhouse in 

 October or November, in small pots, three or four seeds 

 in each, and thinning out to one strong plant. These, 

 if grown in a temperature averaging seventy-five degrees, 

 will in thirty days have become sufficiently strong to 

 plant out at twenty-four inches apart on the south side 

 of the bench, one row only. A trellis of galvanized iron 

 wire is made with about a nine-inch mesh, diamond 

 shaped. This, on the middle bench, should be kept two 

 feet from the glass, but on the front bench it can only be 

 kept one foot, owing to its nearness to the glass. The 

 depth of soil should be, if on raised wooden benches, 

 about five or six inches ; if on the solid center bed, 

 ten to fifteen inches. The soil should be a sandy loam, 

 with one-fifth well-rotted cow manure. The night tem- 

 perature in the forcing-house for the fall, winter, and 

 spring months for Cucumbers, should range as near as 

 possible from sixty to sixty-five degrees, with a tempera- 

 ture on bright days of from ten to fifteen degrees higher, 

 giving ventilation at all reasonable times. Cucumbers 

 delight in a moist atmosphere, and whenever the weather 

 is bright and clear, water should be sprinkled on the 

 pipes, walks, and under tho benches, A dry atmosphere 



