CUCUMBER — DANDELION 



479 



into each piece of sod and covered with 1 to 2 inches of fine soil. 

 The soil should be well watered and the glass or cloth placed over the 

 frame. The roots will run through the sod. When the plants are 

 large enough to set out, a flat trowel or a shingle may be slipped under 

 the sod and the plants moved to the hill without check. In place of 

 sod, old quart berry-boxes are good ; after setting in the hill the roots 

 may force their way through the cracks in the baskets. The baskets 

 also decay rapidly. Flower-pots may be used. These plants from 

 the frames may be set out when danger of frost is over, usually by the 

 10th of May, and should make a very rapid growth, yielding good-sized 

 fruits in two months. The hills should be 

 made rich by forking in a quantity of well- 

 rotted manure, and given a slight elevation 

 above the garden — not high enough to allow 

 the wind to dry the soil, but slightly raised so 

 that water will not stand around the roots. 



The main crop is grown from seed planted 

 directly in the open, and the plants are grown 

 under level culture. 



One ounce of seed will plant fifty hills of 

 cucumbers. The hills may be 4 to 5 feet 306. West Indian gherkin 

 apart each way. {Cucumis Anguria). 



The White Spine is the leading general-purpose variety. For very 

 early or pickling sorts, the Chicago, Russian, and other picklings are 

 good. 



The striped beetle is an inveterate pest on cucumbers and squashes 

 (see page 201). 



The name gherkin is apphed to small pickhng cucumbers. The 

 West India gherkin is a wholly distinct species, but is grown like 

 cucumbers. (Fig. 306.) 



Dandelion. — Under domestication the dandeHon has been devel- 

 oped until quite unrecognizable to the casual observer. The plants 

 attain a large size and the leaves are much more tender. 



Sow in spring in well-manured soil, either in drills or in hills 1 

 foot apart. A cutting of leaves may be had in September or October, 

 and some of the stools may stand until spring. The delicacy of the 



