THE CUCUMBER. 255 



tender plants a most precarious crop to rear successfully 

 and well. A slight shade may sometimes be found 

 necessary, when sudden sunshine succeeds a dull time, 

 but the shade is a necessary evil. Damping the surface 

 of the plunging material may be sufficient to prevent 

 .the plants from flinching or suffering under such cir- 

 cumstances. 



After they have formed their rough leaves, and 

 pushed their leader - shoot, they progress rapidly, 

 and will require more water at the root ; and they 

 should be more freely supplied with it, especially if the 

 weather be clear and dry. It is taken for gi-anted that 

 plants raised thus early are not intended for an ordinary 

 cucumber-frame, to be grown on the surface of the bed, 

 but to be grown on a trellis in a deep brick pit. They 

 should therefore not be stopped, but allowed to grow on 

 with one leader. If stopped, they will make two 

 weaker shoots, instead of one stronger one, and will 

 not be ready for the fruiting-pit nearly so soon. As 

 they progress, and expand more leaves, do not allow 

 them to become crowded, nor their points to touch the 

 glass ; and as they iill their pots with roots, give them 

 a steady supply of water always of the same tempera- 

 ture as the frame. See that the heat is steadily kept up 

 by turning the linings, and adding fresh warm material 

 to them. Sometimes I have reduced the plants to one 

 in a 4-iuch pot, or when two were left, shifted the two 

 plants into 6-inch pots if their appearance indicated 

 that they required more nourishment, or were likely to 

 become pot-bound. 



When all has progressed favourably, they are 

 generally ready for planting-out in about iive or six 

 weeks after thje seeds are sown. In raising cucumber- 



