FORCING DEPARTMENT. 113 



amongst the plants. Should there have been a 

 favourable portion of sun throughout the month of 

 February, the plants will then be shewing fruit, and 

 will be fit for cutting by the beginning or middle of 

 the ensuing month. When a large supply of this 

 fruit is wanted, a succession of crops will require to 

 be kept up, by ridging out young plants every month 

 or six weeks till June, when the plants put out on the 

 ridges, for prickly Cucumbers, will keep up a supply 

 until they are destroyed by the frost. 



The Plants in the frames will require to be looked 

 often over in the course of the season, and thinned 

 out by removing such superfluous and decayed shoots 

 as may appear ; they will also require large sup- 

 plies of water throughout the Summer months ; by all 

 which processes they may be kept in a productive 

 state for eight or nine months in the year. 



Cucumbers may be also successfully grown and 

 brought to perfection in the Winter months, on the 

 back flue or front curb of a Pine stove, or in any 

 other compartment in which the temperature is kept 

 from 68 to 70 or 75 degrees ; and when the plants 

 can be placed so as to receive the full benefit of the 

 sun and light in the gloomy months. The most 

 successful cultivator of this fruit, at an early period, 

 that I have yet seen, is Mr. Forrest, at Sion Gar- 

 dens, who grows it in great perfection in the Winter 

 season, and who has got a particular sort of Cucum- 

 ber, that he calls the Sion Free-Bearer, which is 

 well adapted for Winter culture, and produces fruit 

 in great abundance in the Pine stoves, from Novem- 

 ber, until the other sorts come in, in the regular 



