Aug.] 



THE FORCING GARDEN. 



761 



placed beyond the power of the fire-heat, and a constant cir- 

 culation of air going on between the wall and branches, they 

 are kept, by that means, nearly as cool as if they were trained 

 close to a common wall without any flues whatever. 



CUCUMBERS DURING THE AVINTER. 



With a view to have cucumbers fit to cut at Christmas, a 

 desideratum amongst gardeners, we cannot follow a better 

 course than to give the following extract from a valuable paper 

 in the Hort. Trans., communicated by Mr. Alton, it being 

 the practice adopted in the royal gardens. For this purpose, 

 seeds of an approved early sort are sown on the twelfth, and a 

 second sowing made on the twentieth of this month, with 'a. view 

 to cultivate them in stoves during the winter. The plants 

 are raised in a well-prepared one-light hot-bed, and when the 

 seed-leaves become nearly full grown, they are potted off into 

 pots of the size known by the name of upi'ight thirty-twos ; 

 placing two plants in each pot. When these pots become 

 filled with roots, the plants are again shifted into pots of the 

 size called sixteens, and removed from the seed-bed into a 

 three-light box or frame, with a sufficient bottom-heat to allow 

 of a considerable portion of air being given day and night, 

 both in the front and back of the frame. About the middle 

 ot September, the plants having again filled their pots with 

 roots, and become stocky, are taken from the frame to the 

 pine-stove, and after a few days receive their last shifting, into 

 pots of the following dimensions: — at the top fourteen inches 

 over, the bottom ten inches across, and twelve inches deep, all 

 inside ; measure oach pot at equal distances apart, having three 

 side drain-holes near the bottom, and a larger one in the 

 centre of the bottom, and each containing about three pecks 

 of earth. 



The plants now in these pots are placed on the front edge 

 of the back flue of a pine- stove, on which flue is fixed a 

 fapa-hoarding six inches deep, and extending the whole 

 length of the house, forming all along a trough, or inclosure, 

 for a reserve of compost after the exhaustion of the mould in 

 the pots has taken place. The pots are here placed in 



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