Book I. 



CULTURE OF THE CUCUMBER. 



573 



3207. Planting out. Abercrombie, ^vhcn the temperature is ascertained to be right, 

 brings tlie plants in their pots ; turns over the hills of mould, forming them again pro- 

 perly, and then proceeds to planting. " Turn those in pots clean out, one pot at a time, 

 with the ball of earth whole about tlie roots ; and thus insert one patch of three plants 

 which have grown together, with the ball of earth entire, into the middle of each Iiill, 

 earthing them neatly round the stems. Also any not in pots, having been pricked into 

 the earth of the bed, if required for planting, may be taken up with a small ball of earth, 

 and planted similarly. With water warmed to the air of the bed, give a very light water- 

 ing about the roots, and shut down the glasses for the present, or till next morning. 

 Shade the plants a little from the mid-day sun a few days, till they have taken root in 

 the hills, and cover the glasses every evening with large mats, which should be taken off 

 in the morning." 



3208. Nicol, before planting, if the beds have settled anywise unequally, rectifies and sets level tlie 

 frames, by placing boards, slates, or bricks, under the low corners, so as to make them correct. He 

 then makes up the outsides of tlie bed with dung, a few inches higher than the bottoms of tlie frame; 

 over which he lays some dry litter, or fern fronds, and planks at top to walk on. He then takes tlie pots 

 of plants, each of which is supposed to have got two or tliree rough leaves, and making a hole in 

 each full large enough to receive the balls, turns them out of the pots as entire as possible, placing tliem 

 level with the surface of the hill, fitting the earth round their sides, and settling all with a little water. 

 In the case of planting older plants than the above, at a farther advanced period of the season, or such 

 as have quite filled their pots with roots, the balls may be reduced a little, and the fibres should be singled 

 out, if anywise matted. But the above plants are supposed to have barely filled the pots with roots, and 

 then the balls should be kept entire, that they may not receive a check in the transplanting. 



3209. Temperature f 07' fruiting plants. Abercrombie's minimum is fifty-five degrees, 

 and maximum in the day-time sixty-five degrees, the same as for the seed-bed. 



3210. M'P/iail says, " It appears, that during the winter and spring months, the medium heat of the 

 air in the frames should be seventy-five degrees, and the medium heat of the mould eighty degrees. But 

 when the sun shines, the heat of the air in the frames is often raised to a much higher degree ; 

 so that reckoning this heat, tlie medium for that of the air of the frames may be eighty degrees." 

 (Gard. Reweyn. p. 59.) 



3211. NicoVs medium heat for cucumbers is sixty degrees ; in sunshine he admits as much air as will 

 keep down the thermometer to sixty-five. {Kalend. p. 366.) 



3212. Mills, in the fruiting-frames, wishes " to have at all times from seventy to eighty degrees of heat, 

 which I regularly keep up by applying linings of hot dung, prepared one month previously, in the same 

 manner as that for the beds. For the first month I cover the glass with a single mat only ; and as the 

 nights become cold, I increase the covering, using hay, which I put on the glass, and cover that with a 

 single mat. I regulate the heat at night by the wai-mth of the glass under the hay, for when the glass is 

 warm, which should be in two hours after covering up, a little air is required. When the glass and hay 

 covering are warm, which is easily known by putting the hand under the hay on the glass light, the 

 internal heat of the bed will be about seventy-eight degrees, in which degree of heat, the cucumbers 

 shown to the society have grown in length, in sixteen hours, one inch and a quarter. I give a little water 

 round the insides of the frame as often as I find them dry, which causes a fine steam to rise, and I think 

 it better than watering the mould, for if this latter practice is often repeated in winter, when the sun's 

 power is insufficient to absorb the moisture, and the glasses can be but little open, to allow the damp to 

 pass off, the earth, in a few weeks, will lose its vigor, and the roots of the plants will perish. Great care 

 should also be taken, at this season, not to injure the roots by too much heat, which is not less detrimental 

 than too much moisture ; they can only be secured by keeping up a regular warmth, just sufficient to 

 expel the damp which arises in the night from the fermenting dung." 



3213. Linings. The requisite degree of heat Abercrombie is careful to support in 

 the bed, when declining, " by timely linings of hot fresh dung, which may be applied to 

 the sides, fifteen or eighteen inches in width, and as liigh as the dung of the bed. 

 Generally line the back part first, and the other in a week, or from ten days to a fort- 

 night after, as may seem necessary by the degree of heat in the bed. Sometimes, if the 

 heat is fallen abruptly below the minimum degree, it may be proper to line both sides 

 moderately, at once, to recover the temperature sooner and with better effect : but be 

 particularly careful never to over-line, which would cause a too violently renewed heat 

 and steam in the bed. The dung for linings must be fermented, as in first building a 

 bed." 



3214. Nicol, when the heat decreases, cuts avv'ay the old dung perpendicularly by the frame, and adds 

 new linings (generally beginning witli the back first), two feet broad, to the height of six inches above the 

 bottom of the frame. As it will sink considerably in heating, he adds to it in a few days. 



3215. Mills applies linings of hot dung prepared a month previously. 



3216. Covering. This must be nightly performed till June ; proportioning the warmth 

 of the cover to the heat of the air in the bed, and that of the external air. Mats are laid 

 next the glass ; on these a layer of hay, and over this mats, made fast by boards, but 

 not hanging over the linings, is the usual mode, early in the season. M'Phail says, 

 " My method of covering up was as follows : in the first place, I laid clean single mats 

 on the lights, in length and breadth, just or nearly to cover the sashes, taking care not 

 to suffer any part of the mats to hang over the sashes on or above the linings, for that 

 would be the means of drawing the steam into the frames in the night-time. On these 

 mats was spread equally a covering of soft hay, and on the hay was laid another 

 covering of single mats, upon which were laid two, and sometimes three or four, rows 

 of boards, to prevent the covering from being blown off by the winds. The mats laid on 

 next to the glass are merely to keep the seeds and dust which may happen to be in the 

 hay from getting into the frames among the plants. If the bed be high in covering up, 



