148 Account of a Method of growing Cucumbers. 



from a dry heathy common, and half leaf mould ; after lying 

 twelve months in aheap, the compost is fit for use. 



I sow the Cucumber seed on the 14th of October in a one- 

 light frame, on a bed of hot dung, prepared as above directed, 

 and as soon as the seed leaves of the plants are fully ex- 

 panded, I transplant them, singly, into pots of the 48th size, 

 in the earth before mentioned, and give them a little water. 



I give the frame air night and day ; the heat I wish to have 

 in the frame is from 65 to 75 degrees of Fahrenheit's ther- 

 mometer ; with this heat, and water, as the earth in the pots 

 becomes dry, and a little air night and day, so as to keep the 

 internal air in the frame sweet, and fluctuating between the 

 degrees of heat abovementioned, the plants will be fit for 

 finally transplanting out by the 14th of November, into the 

 fruiting frames. In these frames I wish to have at all times 

 from 70 to 80 degrees of heat, which I regularly keep up by 

 applying linings of hot dung, prepared one month previously, 

 in the same manner as that for the beds. For the first month 

 I cover the glass with a single mat only ; and as the nights 

 become cold, I increase the covering, using hay, which I put 

 on the glass, and cover that with a single mat. I regulate 

 the heat at night by the warmth of the glass under the hay, 

 for when the glass is warm, which should be in two hours 

 after covering up, a little air is required. 



When the glass and hay covering are warm, which is easily 

 known by putting the hand under the hay on the glass light, 

 the internal heat of the bed will be about 78 degrees, in which 

 degree of heat, the Cucumbers shown to the Society have 

 grown in length, in 16 hours, one inch and a quarter. I give 

 a little water round the insides of the frame as often as I find 



