82 GARDENING FOR ALL, 
Place six inches of soil over the manure, using the soil 
that was excavated if it is of good and suitable quality, and 
plant the cucumbers. Protect with hand-lights and keep 
them raised slightly from the soil. Water carefully, as 
required, until the plants are thoroughly established. 
Where there is not the convenience of a frame or 
hot-house for raising the plants, seed may be sown direct 
upon the mounds or ridges, but in this case they ought to be 
prepared at the beginning of May instead of towards the end 
of the month. 
Frame cucumbers or hot-house cucumbers may be sown 
in any month of the year, according to the time the fruit is 
required and the means at command for growing it. Those 
who depend upon frames for a supply, may sow in March or 
April, in three-inch pots, three parts filled with good soil. 
Plunge the pots in a hot-bed, or bottom heat of some kind. 
At this early stage be careful only to apply water of the same 
temperature as that in which the plants are growing, and any 
soil placed in contact with the plants should be previously 
warmed. 
In about a month they will be ready for planting into the 
frame where they are to fruit, the soil then for them should 
be composed of leaf mould, rough loam, and decayed manure 
in equal parts. Make up the hot-bed a few days before 
planting out, and, after planting, shade for several days, until 
the young plants are established. 
The temperature for the frame at night should be 65° to 
70°, and in the daytime it may vary from 80° to 95°. 
Cucumbers are lovers of atmospheric moisture, and they 
dislike cold currents of air at all times. When the sun is 
very bright and hot the cucumbers ought to be shaded with 
thin material of some kind, or whitewash the glass. 
With proper attention to heat, careful watering—avoid 
giving too much,—stopping at one or two joints beyond the 
fruit, and an occasional cutting out of old and barren growths, 
plants in frames will bear from May to the end of September. 
Fifty fruits from each square yard of space occupied by 
cucumber plants is a nice crop. Rollisson’s ‘l’elegraph is one 
of the best for frame or hot-house culture. 
