CUCUMBER. 



91 



plants attain the height of a foot and a half or two feet, another 

 digging should take place, and the stems of the plants should be 

 earthed up to another four or five inches : after this, you have 

 nothing to do but keep the ground clear from weeds. The corn 

 will be in bloom, and tiie ears will begin to show themselves, in the 

 latter end of July : in the latter end of August, there will be some 

 corn fit to eat ; and as some ears will always be more backward 

 than others, there will always be some in proper order for eating 

 till about the latter end of September. Those ears which are not 

 gathered before October will become ripe, and the grains in them 

 hard : two or three of the finest ought to be saved for seed, and the 

 rest given to poultry : about three rows across one of the p!ats in 

 the garden would be sufficient for any family. 



144. CORN-SALAD. — This is a little insignificant annual 

 plant that some persons use in salads. It is, indeed, a iceed, and 

 can be of no real use where lettuces are to be had. It bears abun- 

 dance of seed ; and a little of it may be had by sowing in April, if 

 any one should have the strange curiosity. If sown in August it 

 will stand the winter, and w ill not run olf to seed so soon as if 

 sown in April. 



145. CRESS is excellent in salads, with lettuces. It is a pep- 

 pery little thing, far preferable to mustard or rape. Ir is an an- 

 nual, and bears prodigious quantities of seed. A small quantity 

 should, in the salad season, be sowed every six days or therea- 

 bouts ; for it should be cut before it comes into rough leaf. It is 

 sowed in little drills made with the tops of the fingers, and covered 

 slightly with very fine earth : it is up almost immediately, and 

 quite fit to cut in five or six days. This and other small salads 

 may be very conveniently raised, in the winter time, in any hot-bed 

 that you happen to have. 



146. CUCUMBER. — The instructions relative to the raising 

 of cucumbers naturally divide themselves into two sets ; one ap- 

 plicable to the raising of cucumbers in hot-beds, and the other to 

 the raising of cucumbers in the natural ground, or with some 

 little portion of artificial heat. I shall first speak of the former ; 

 for the produce of this plant is a very great favourite ; it is a 

 general desire to have it early ; and it is unquestionably true that 

 the flavour of the cucumber is never so delicate, and the smell 

 never so refreshing, as when it is raised in a hot-bed, or, at least, 

 by the means of some artificial heat. To do this, however, at so 



