CUCUMBER. 



83 



the iruit will be required, according to the* length of the 

 days in the interval. In proportion as the entire course 

 embraces a greater part of mid-winter, the liability of failure 

 from obstacles in the weather will be greater. The last 

 fortnight in January, or first week of February, is a good 

 time for beginning to force the most early crop. In the 

 subsequent months, both main and secondary crops may be 

 started as required, and will come forward more freely. 

 To have a constant succession, seedlings should be origi- 

 nated twice a month. As the course of forcing more coin- 

 cides with the natural growing season, the length of it will 

 be reduced to eight, seven, or six weeks." Nicol recom- 

 mends the middle of January. He says, " Some begin 

 sooner, but it is striving hard against the stream to little 

 purpose. If the dung be prepared, and the bed be got 

 ready, so as to sow about the 1st of February, the success 

 will be often greater than by sowing a month earlier." Be- 

 sides, cucumbers, produced altogether by the heat of dung, 

 without the aid of the sun, are less wholesome and palatable 

 than those which Nature affords in the due course of her 

 operations. 



Sorts, — Abercrombie recommends " the short prickly for 

 very early fruit, and the long prickly kinds for the chief 

 early and main summer crops." MThail prefers ^' the green 

 cucumber with black prickles, as best for forcing. When 

 fit for table, it runs from six to nine inches long, and, when 

 ripe, runs to about eighteen or twenty inches long." 



Choice of seeds, — " It is advisable," Abercrombie ob- 

 serves, " to have seed from two, at least, to four years old, 

 in preference to nev/er seed, which is apt to run luxuriantly 

 in vine, and the plants from it do not show fruit so soon 

 nor so abundantly as those from seed of a greater age. But 

 when seed has been kept more than four years, it is some- 

 times found to be too much weakened." Mr. Armstrong 

 says, A debate has long existed, on the preference to be 

 given to old or liew seeds, and which, like many others, 

 appears to be interminable. The Abbe Rozier and his 

 followers think that the most vigorous plants of all species 

 and kinds are the best, and, accordingly, prefer new seeds, 

 because more likely to produce such than old ones : while, 

 on the other hand, their opponents maintain, that plants 

 may have too much vigour, as well as too little ; and that, 

 whenever an excess of vigour exists, according to all vege- 

 table analogy, it shows itself in the production of stems and 



