Cucumbers, Melons, Asparagus, Mushrooms, Sfc. 693 



to which are added. Brief Observations on the growth of 



early Potatoes. 12mo. Ipswich, 1833. 



The author sets out with some observations on the different 

 modes hitherto employed in growing cucumbers in hot-beds 

 or pits. These modes, he truly observes, are very numerous ; 

 but he confines his remarks to " a very few," which include 

 the principles of all the different modes. The first which he 

 notices is the " common dung-bed mode of growing," which 

 he objects to, on account of the loss of time, labour, and 

 heat; and also on account of the unequal settlement of the 

 bed. The next mode is that of Mr. Knight, the President 

 of the Horticultural Society, described in Vol. IV. p. 368., 

 which Mr. Smith says he tried, and found defective, two 

 or three years before Mr. Knight recommended it. Plat- 

 forms, supported by posts or brick piers, were tried for 

 several years ; and of this kind of bed Mr. Smith observes, 

 *' although the best cucumbers which ever came under my 

 notice were produced in it, and balsams 16 ft. in circumfe- 

 rence, yet, for want of a proper substance against which to 

 build the linings, and the almost entire destitution of means 

 to supply heat by absorption and conduction, experience has 

 taught WiQ that the principle cannot with safety be depended 

 upon, when used for early forcing." (p. 7.) Brick pits are 

 allowed by Mr. Smith to have various good qualities, espe- 

 cially M'Phail's pits; but Mr. Smith objects to all fixed 

 structures, as being " perpetual habitations for millepedes 

 [meaning woodlice]," and also because they prevent the slope 

 of the glass from being altered according to the season ; 

 Mr. Smith very properly observing, that the elevation of the 

 glass ought to be considerable in winter, but that it cannot 

 well be too little in the hottest weather of summer. 



Having disposed of these three modes of growing, which 

 may be considered the types of all those which have hitherto 

 been adopted, Mr. Smith's next chapter is on rearing plants 

 from seed, " fit for the fruiting-bed ;" which we pass over to 

 the succeeding one, which treats of Mr. Smith's mode of 

 building a cucumber bed. The materials wanted are, a 

 quantity of stones or brickbat rubble; a quantity of good 

 stable dung, or a mixture of it with other substances, such as 

 leaves of trees, in a medium state of fermentation, &c. ; a 

 quantity of wattled work ; some good soil, laid where it can 

 become dry; and a common frame and lights, from 4 to 6 ft. 

 wide, and 12 ft. long. In building the bed, the first thing is 

 to form a foundation, in the back and front, of rubblework, 

 enclosed with wattled work. The width of these foundations may 

 be between 2 and 3 ft., and the height of the north foundation 



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