Account of a Method of growing Cucumbers. 147 



after a month's preparation, with every care, it will frequently 

 heat itself dry, and require water in large quantities, which, if 

 not allowed to pass off freely, will cause an unwholesome 

 steam to rise, in which the Cucumber plant will not grow 

 freely : on this bottom of wood I make the bed, four feet high 

 with dung, gently beating it down with a fork ; this is done 

 about the first of November, and by the month of February, 

 the four feet of dung will not be more than two feet thick, 

 which, with the foot of wood at the bottom, will make the 

 bed three feet high ; this I consider a good height, for if 

 lower, it cannot be so well heated by linings, which is the 

 only method of warming it in the months of February and 

 March, as by that time the first heat of the bed will have quite 

 declined. 



Having made the bed, I put on the frames and lights, 

 which I shut close till the heat rises. I then give air night 

 and day, sufficient to allow the steam to pass off, and once in 

 two days, I fork the surface over, about nine inches deep, to 

 sweeten it, and if, in the operation, I find any part dry, I care- 

 fully wet it. The bed being quite sweet, I prepare it for the 

 mould, by making the middle about eight inches lower than 

 the sides, as the sides are liable, from the weight of the 

 frames, to settle faster than the middle, which often causes 

 the hills of earth to crack, by which the roots of the plants 

 are greatly injured. 



Under the centre of each light, I put one solid foot of earth, 

 the top of which is then within nine inches of the glass, and 

 the top of the plants, when planted in it, will be within three 

 inches of the glass. 



The earth I grow them in, is half bog or black mould, go1 



VOL. III. X 



