98 



KITCHEN-GARDEN PLANTS. 



[chap. 



be kept quite clear of the innumerable weeds that will start in such 

 a favourable situation ; but, long before this, there will be blos- 

 soms and even fruit, if the plants be in good health. Tlje first 

 fruit that appear generally remains small, and never swells to any 

 size ; but these are soon followed by others that swell and that 

 come to perfection ; and^ if all these directions be attended to, 

 and if the weather be not worse than it is one year out of tsventy, 

 you can hardly fail to have cucumbers to cut about the mid ale of 

 March, which is a very fine thing for a gardener to say ; and, 

 though here is a great deal of detail, though here are a great 

 number of things to do, there is much more of words than of 

 deeds in the thing : it takes two or three sentences to describe 

 how a plant is to be put into, or turned out of, a pot ; but the act 

 itself is performed in half a minute. Care ought to be taken that 

 there be not too great a quantity of vines in the bed ; for, if the 

 mass of leaves be too great, they shade part of the vines, and the 

 blossoms and the fruit ; and, instead of having more fruit from 

 the abundance of vines, you have perhaps none at all. This 

 overstocking of the bed with vines is a great and prevalent error. 

 For my part, I think one plant enough for each hill, and I never 

 kept but one in a hill, and, if I put two into a pot, it was by 

 way of precaution lest one should fail. One will bring more 

 weight of fruit than two, two more than three, and so on, till you 

 come to a number that would give you no fruit at all. The plants, 

 thus crowded, rob one another ; their roots interfere with those of 

 each other. They cease to bear sooner than they would if they 

 stood singly ; and, in short, my experience and observation induce 

 me strongly to urge the reader never to have in a hot-bed, whether 

 of cucumber or melon, more than one plant in a light. As the season 

 advances, a greater proportion of air is to be given, of course, and 

 there is to be less covering in the night-time, dependent, however, 

 more on the state of the weather than on the precise time of the 

 year ; for we have frequently mild weather in February and severe 

 weather in March. When the weather becomes such as that water 

 will have the chill taken from it by being placed under a south 

 wall or in a hot-bed, water thus prepared may do very well but, 

 until then, the water should be a little warm. Every one will be 

 a judge when the earth is so dry as to require water ; but care 

 should be taken not to let the water fall in great quantities just 

 upon the stems of the plants at any stage of their growth, for that 



