CUCUMBER. 



97 



enough to counteract its chilling effects, the plants will linger on 

 alive, to be sure, but their colour will be approaching to a yellow, 

 their leaves small, their shoots slender, their blossoms small and 

 feeble, the fruit, if they show any, will not swell ; and, if they bear 

 after all, it will not be before pretty nearly the month of May, in- 

 stead of a decent bearing in the month of March. A good strong 

 bottom heat, with a great deal of light, and with a liberal quantity 

 of air, are the great means of having cucumbers. The next thing 

 to be noticed is the after-cultivation of the plants, and, first, 

 with respect to the shoots or runners that come out of them. 

 There wdll come two shoots out of each plant, and these wall soon 

 begin to grow in a horizontal position, and indeed go along the 

 ground, which it is their nature to do ; but these two shoots would 

 not be sufficient ; for they would soon get to the outside of the 

 bed, leaving the middle of the bed not half covered with vines ; 

 therefore, when these runners have got three joints, and aie be- 

 ginning to make a fourth, pinch off the top of each runner. New 

 side-shoots or runners will then come out from the three joints. 

 When these have got four joints, which will be very quickly, pinch 

 off the fifth as soon as it appears. Each plant will now have a 

 dozen or two of runners, and that is enough for one light. After 

 this, you may let the runners go on, giving their heads a better 

 direction, now-and-then, in order to cover the ground in the bed ; 

 for they will need no more topping. But there must be earthing 

 as well as topping. As the plants advance above ground, so 

 they will below ground, and you must keep putting up earth to the 

 hills in order to supply fresh food for the roots, which you will find 

 pushing out in every direction. It is the practice of some gar- 

 deners to be everlastingly drawing the earth away from the side 

 of the hills till they come to the plants, in order to take the points 

 of the roots up and put earth under them, so as to give the roots 

 a horizontal direction. This is sheer nonsense. All that is ne- 

 cessary is to keep the hills continually made larger and larger in 

 circumference, as the roots approach the outside, and until you 

 have got all the bed level to the tops of the hills. As you extend 

 the circumference of the hills, the runners will advance upon you ; 

 and, that the bed may be covered evenly with the vines, the run- 

 ners should be occasionally held down by little pegs of wood with 

 hooks at the top of them. At last the bed is even and level all 

 over. And, finally, it is covered with the vines, and should always 



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