20 ON THE CULTURE OF THE CUCUMBER 



pinched off; its removal will give strength to 

 the plant, and will cause it to throw out fresh 

 shoots from the base of the seed-leaves. These 

 shoots are allowed to grow until they are two 

 joints in length, when they must be stopped by 

 being pinched off with the finger and thumb to 

 one joint. 



When the pots are filled with roots, the earth 

 in which they grow will become matted together 

 so as to form a ball ; and it will then be neces- 

 sary to repot the plants into thirty-two sized 

 pots, which are six inches in diameter and six 

 inches deep, as they will then require more room. 

 These pots* as before mentioned, must be new, 

 or if not so, they must be washed clean and 

 dried ; and the same soil and drainage must be 

 used in transplanting as on the former occasion. 

 As turf only is used, there will then be no trou- 

 ble or danger of breaking the roots when they 

 are removed from the pots into the fruiting bed. 

 If the plants are perfectly right and well esta- 

 blished, the whole of the earth in which they 



