CUCUMBER— DANDELION 479 
into each piece of sod and covered with 1 to 2 inches of fine soil. 
The soil should be well watered and the glass or cloth placed over the 
frame. The roots will run through the sod. When the plants are 
large enough to set out, a flat trowel or a shingle may be slipped under 
the sod and the plants moved to the hill without check. In place of 
sod, old quart berry-boxes are good; after setting in the hill the roots 
may force their way through the cracks in the baskets. The baskets 
also decay rapidly. Flower-pots may be used. These plants from 
the frames may be set out when danger of frost is over, usually by the 
10th of May, and should make a very rapid growth, yielding good-sized 
fruits in two months. The hills should be 
made rich by forking in a quantity of well- 
rotted manure, and given a slight elevation , 
above the garden — not high enough to allow & 
the wind to dry the soil, but slightly raised so 
that water will not stand around the roots. 
The main crop is grown from seed planted 
directly in the open, and the plants are grown 
under level culture. 
One ounce of seed will plant fifty hills of = 
cucumbers. The hills may be 4 to 5 feet 306. West Indian gherkin 
apart each way. (Cucumis Anguria). 
The White Spine is the leading general-purpose variety. For very 
early or pickling sorts, the Chicago, Russian, and other picklings are 
good. 
The striped beetle is an inveterate pest on cucumbers and squashes 
(see page 201). : 
The name gherkin is applied to small pickling cucumbers. The 
West India gherkin is a wholly distinct species, but is grown like 
cucumbers. (Fig. 306.) 
Dandelion. — Under domestication the dandelion has been devel- 
oped until quite unrecognizable to the casual observer. The plants 
attain a large size and the leaves are much more tender. 
Sow in spring in well-manured soil, either in drills or in hills 1 
foot apart. A cutting of leaves may be had in September or October, 
and some of the stools may stand until spring. The delicacy of the 
