System of Cucumber- Growing. 655 



in a few words. Get seeds of some good variety, and sow them 

 in charcoal dust if it can be conveniently had, or some rather 

 light, purified, sweet earth, plunging the pot in which they are 

 sown in a kind, wholesome, sweet, heat. As soon as the plants 

 are up, pot them singly into small 60-sized pots, taking care 

 to use wholesome sweet earth, and place them as near the glass 

 as possible. As soon as they have made one rough leaf, and are 

 forming the next, pinch it out, or, more properly speaking, stop 

 it; then shift them into 48-sized j)ots, leaving one third of 

 the pot not filled with earth, to fill up as the plants advance. 

 When the plants have made another joint, stop them again; 

 then shift them into 24-sized pots ; if in the autumn or short 

 days of winter, much time and labour will be saved by so 

 doing ; allowing them at this time to grow three joints before 

 stopping them again, and taking care, if they are for the hothouse 

 and to be grown in large pots or tubs, to have some thoroughly 

 sweet earth prepared, brought into the house, and put into what 

 you intend to grow them in, a day or two previous to their 

 being permanently placed where they are to produce fruit, so 

 that the earth may get a little warm. Then train them up a neat 

 wire trellising, or painted string trellis, which I prefer myself, 

 as it is so easily shifted when the plants are to be removed, and 

 a succession to be replaced. It is my rule to stop the plants at 

 every joint after turning them out, as long as they are kept 

 growing, taking care, at all seasons, to have a succession of young 

 plants of different sizes. 



The requisites are, nice low pits heated with hot water, well 

 drained, which is most essential on any system ; and a good 

 body of well-prepared pulverised soil, consisting of the top spit 

 from an old pasture that is loamy and full of fibre laid toge- 

 ther for one year, and, at the time of using, mixed with some 

 sweet, mellow, well-prepared rotten dung, and a little charcoal 

 dust, if it can be procured. For my own practice, I prefer a 

 good frame to any pit for early forcing, except it be a pit on 

 a good construction, worked with hot water, with a nice light 

 trellis to train the plants on, and to keep the fruit from the 

 earth. The depth of the frame, at the back, should be from 

 2 ft. 6 in. to 3 ft. ; the front 6 in. shallower, wliich is quite suf- 

 ficient, as the frame can always be elevated to any degree one 

 could wish for, according to the season of the year. 



In preparing for the bed, I always take care to have it well 

 drained with faggots, prunings, or some kind of refuse ; to have 

 my dung or other fermenting material well prepared and sweet- 

 ened, and never, at any season of the year, to make my beds 

 more than 2 ft. 6 in. in height (2 ft. is about my measure) ; and 

 to line the outside immediately with the same material to the 

 very top of the frame, covering the lining all round with a little 



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