130 



On Forcing Cucumbers. 



first three weeks or month; at the most, a single mat put 

 lengthways will suffice, the ends not to hang over the sides. 



The heat must be kept up by augmenting the linings once 

 a week, turning over and watering them, when they heat so as 

 to become dry. The bed inside the frame will require 

 forking up about nine inches deep, three times a week, the 

 hillocks at the same time should be examined, and a round 

 pointed stick of about an inch diameter, and eighteen inches 

 long, must be thrust about twelve inches, into the dung, 

 under the straw mat, making five or six perforations under 

 each hillock. Into each of the holes so formed pour from 

 the spout of a water pot, as much water as the state of the 

 bed seems to require, this may be ascertained from the facility 

 with which the perforator goes into the bed; if the bed is 

 husky or burning, the stick will go in with difficulty, and 

 then a large pot of water is required to a hillock ; on the 

 contrary, if the bed is in a free state of working, the per- 

 forator will go into it very easily, and then a sprinkling 

 from the rose of the pot will be sufficient. The repeated 

 forking of the bed will cause the dung to hover, and get 

 above the straw bands, in which case it is proper to take out 

 at the different forkings the amount of a barrow full to each 

 light; this gives scope for a greater depth of earth, and pre- 

 vents burning under the hillocks. 



The dung, from the continued forking and watering, will be- 

 come in a fine state to receive the roots of the plants ; these, 

 after passing through the proper depth of compost placed over 

 the dung (which is about eighteen inches) will readily strike 

 into the dung, and bear a productive crop of Cucumbers 

 throughout the summer, without their leaves flagging or 



