666 



FEUIT GARDEN. 



cut in pieces, should such become necessary in 

 arranging the branches while pruning. " As 

 soon as the plants reach the trellis their heads 

 are nipped off. The plants are now frequently 

 watered with diluted manure-water in a tepid 

 state, and the atmosphere is kept humid by 

 placing zinc saddles filled with water on the top 

 of the hot-water pipes " that heat the atmosphere 

 of the pits. " Plenty of air is given, and the heat 

 is kept up by day to 70°, and by night to 65°." 

 The shoot is, in Mr CuthiU's practice, " pinched 

 off at the fruit, and not at the joint above it, as is 

 the practice with many ; and by this mode the 

 frame does not get so full of useless branchea 

 The male blossoms are kept off at all times, and 

 after the plants come into hard bearing, every 

 encouragement must be given them, administer- 

 ing liquid manure freely." By this process Mr 

 Cuthill keeps his plants in a healthy bearing 

 state till September, cutting fruit during the 

 whole summer, and afterwards ripening the seed; 

 for the seed of cucumbers is in gi'eat demand, 

 some seed-houses holding a stock of from half a 

 ton to a ton ; besides, Mr Cuthill grows for sale 

 a peculiar black-spined variety, which we have 

 found a most productive bearer. Water is given 

 liberally during summer, particularly during 

 bright sunshine and while the plants are in full 

 bearing, to the extent, he informs us, of about 

 four gallons per week to each light. " I never," he 

 says, " in the height of summer, use cold water, 

 for I am persuaded that half the diseases in 

 cucumbers arise from watering with cold water 

 from tanks not sufficiently open to the sun and 

 air." He places much importance on the ad- 

 mission of air, but remarks ; " Never give air at 

 the front of the pits, for this reason, the mo- 

 ment you admit air in front and back a dry 

 hot current is produced, which, in cucumber- 

 growing, above all things, should be avoided; 

 but if air be given at back only, circulation of 

 heated air will be maintained. And be it re- 

 membered, the older the plants the more heat 

 they require." These excellent directions are 

 admirably adapted to cucumbers grown in large 

 houses as well as in pits, and if followed cannot 

 fail of producing abundant crops. 



In former times, when the cucumber was 

 trained close to the soil in which it was grown, 

 picking out the eye or stopping at the first joint, 

 as practically understood, was held as good prac- 

 tice; and so, no doubt, it was, when lateral 

 branches were desired, and those proceeding 

 from near the root or centre of the plant were 

 deemed the best, and most capable of being 

 trained equally over the bed in which the roots 

 were placed. And so, no doubt, it is still with 

 cucumbers grown on ridges or under hand- 

 glasses, in what may be called out-of-door cul- 

 ture; for, as Abercrombie remarks, it " is neces- 

 sary to promote a strong stocky growth and an 

 emission of fruitful laterals, and from these 

 other prolific runners will be successively pro- 

 duced. The vines," he continues, " without the 

 process of stopping, would generally be both 

 weaker and so deficient in fertile runners that 

 they would sometimes extend 2 or 3 feet with- 

 out showing fruit." The case is now different, 

 and this primary stopping is disregarded, the 



leading shoot being trained upwards until it 

 reach the trellis to which its lateral branches 

 are to be trained. At such time stopping be- 

 comes imperative for the production of lateral 

 shoots proceeding in all directions. 



Nicol was amongst the first to point out the 

 difficulty of cultivating the cucumber during 

 winter in pits heated by fermentation. " Those 

 who would have cucumbers at Christmas," he 

 says (a thing sometimes attempted), " will find 

 it more practicable and less troublesome if the 

 plants be grown in a fined pit than if they grew 

 on a, common hotbed." And M'Phail, writing 

 about the same time, observes, " To cultivate 

 cucumbers on a dung-bed, the fruit is sometimes 

 watery and ill-tasted." And the same authority 

 afterwards remarks, " Cucumber plants will 

 grow in a hothouse where the pine- apple is cul- 

 tivated, but they will not be very long-lived 

 there." He recommends to sow the seed in 

 August, in boxes filled with vegetable or other 

 light earth, and to place them on shelves in the 

 back side of the hothouse, where the sun may 

 shine on them in the short days. They may, 

 perhaps, produce a few fruit in the months of 

 December or January. In the absence of a 

 regular cucumber pit or house, the pine-stove is 

 still the most suitable place for them ; and if 

 placed as described above, but much better if 

 over a flue or hot-water pipe, by which their 

 roots would be kept at a proper temperature, 

 good crops may fairly be expected. With a 

 properly constructed cucumber - house, cucum- 

 bers may be obtained in great perfection during 

 the whole winter. The same cannot be ex- 

 pected at anything like a remunerative cost by 

 continuing their cultivation in dung pits and 

 frames. We are quite aware that such things 

 have been accomplished, but the utmost amount 

 of success bore no proportion to the cost and 

 risk compared with the certainty and economy 

 of growing them in a well-appointed cucumber- 

 house. 



Open-air culture. — The cucumber is grown to 

 a large extent in the south of England as an 

 open-air crop, very rarely so in Scotland, both 

 on account of want of climate and a want of 

 taste amongst her people for so refreshing a 

 vegetable. The usual practice is to raise the 

 plants from seed sown in a cucumber or melon 

 pit about the middle of April. When the plants 

 have made their cotyledon or seed leaves, they 

 are potted off into 4-inch pots, setting three or 

 four plants in each. By the middle of May a 

 pit is dug 2 feet deep, 3 feet broad, and of a 

 length corresponding with the number of plants 

 to be planted out. The warmest situation in 

 the garden is selected for this purpose, and the 

 plants have their tops shortened at the second 

 or third joint. The trench is then filled with 

 warm stable-yard manure in a high state of fer- 

 mentation, and covered over to the depth of 10 

 or 12 inches with rich light mould, into which 

 they are planted as soon as the soil has become 

 sufficiently warmed, and are then covered with 

 hand-glasses set about a yard a.sunder from each 

 other. After they have begun to grow, the 

 glasses are raised a little every fine day for the 

 admission of air, and as the weather gets warmer 



