THE CULTIVATION OF VEGETABLES 77 



part of the stalks be bound round with hay-bands. The 

 Cardoon is available as a vegetable from October till 

 March. 



Cucumbers 



Cucumbers are best grown in frames, though where a 

 frame is not available useful ridge Cucumbers may be 

 grown out of doors in warm positions. In growing 

 Cucumbers out of doors one or more holes two feet deep 

 and two feet square should be dug and nearly filled 

 with half-rotten stable manure. On this should be 

 placed about four inches of fine rich soil. In this soil 

 about one inch deep five or six seeds should be sown in 

 May, and until the plants appear the spot should be 

 covered by an inverted box or tub. Only ridge varieties 

 should be grown in this way. Frame Cucumbers should 

 be sown about the middle of March in pots of fine 

 soil placed on a hot-bed in a frame. As soon as the 

 seedlings have four or six leaves they should be trans- 

 planted to the soil on the hot-bed of itself. Two or 

 three plants are ample for an ordinary frame. Careful 

 ventilation during the day-time and generous watering 

 through the summer months are the chief points in culti- 

 vation. There are many good varieties, Sutton's 

 Matchless and the Old Telegraph being as good as any. 



Vegetable Marrows 



Vegetable Marrows may be grown exactly in the 

 way advised for ridge Cucumbers. Seed may be sown 

 directly into the beds in May, but it is better to sow in 

 heat a month earlier, and transplant at the end of May. 



Green Crops 



Cabbages, Broccoli, Cauliflowers and their kind require 

 more than perhaps any other vegetable liberal treatment 



