CULTURE OF THE CUCUMBER IN A DUNG-BED. 



497 



and the whole pressed down moderately firm. The pot may then be 

 plunged half its depth into the dung-bed, or into a layer of old half-spent 

 tan spread on its surface. The temperature should be from 60° to 70° with- 

 out sun, and from 7o° to 80° during sunshine. Plenty of air should be 

 given during the day, and a little all night. The plants will appear in 

 four or five days, and when they are clearly above the soil, the pot may 

 be lifted up and set on the surface of the bed. A lining will now require 

 to be put round the bed, so as to increase the temperature of the 

 interior, which it will do even if formed of half-decayed litter or damaged 

 hay, or in short anything that will ferment a little but not much. "^Fhen 

 the plants show the third leaf, reckoning the cotyledons two, they may be 

 potted off singly into pots, 3 inches in diameter, either new or well cleaned 

 in the inside, in order that the balls may turn out entire and freely when 

 the plants are to be transplanted. The soil used should be moderately fine but 

 not sifted, and a piece of turf should be placed over the crock at the bottom of 

 the pot for drainage. The plants should be inserted so deep in the pot as that 

 the seed-leaves should just be a little above the level of the rim, and the 

 soil should be within an inch of the rim, in order to allow of adding a 

 little more when the roots show themselves above the surface. The after- 

 noon is generally preferred for potting, because too much light is apt to cause 

 the leaves to flag. The tops of the plants, when set in the bed, should be 

 within G or 8 inches of the glass, and as they increase in height the pot 

 should be lowered, so as always to keep the plants about the same distance. 

 Water may be applied whenever it appears wanting, there being much less 

 danger in watering peat soil than in watering leaf mould, because the former 

 only retains a very moderate quantity. Allien the heat of the bed falls 

 below 70° some fresh lining may be added, more especially if the weather be 

 dull and wet, the object being to dry the plants once a-day : a fine moisture 

 appearing on them in the morning is a sign of health. " When the third 

 leaf gets perfectly developed, a leading shoot will rise from the base of its 

 petiole, which, as soon as it is clearly formed, should be pinched off ; its 

 removal will give strength to the plant, and will cause it to throw out fresh 

 shoots from the base of the seed-leaves. These shoots are allowed to grow 

 until they are two joints in length, when they must be stopped by being 

 pinched off with the finger and thumb to one joint." (^Ihid. p. 20.) The 

 plants should be shifted into pots 6 inches in diameter, as soon the balls 

 are filled with roots, using the same soil and drainage as before. Each 

 plant should have three good shoots, which should be stopped at every joint, 

 one joint at a time, and not all at the same time, wliich would check the 

 progress of the plant. On that account a second leader should never be 

 stopped till a shoot is seen coming forward on the one stopped previously. 



1055. Raising plants from cuttings. — Instead of raising cucumber plants 

 from seed, they may be raised from cuttings, and thus kept on from year to 

 year. The method of striking them is as follows : — Take a shoot which is 

 just ready for stopping, cut it off just below the joint behind the joint before 

 which the shoot should have been stopped, then cut smooth the lower end 

 of the shoot or cutting, and stick it into fine leaf or other rich mould about 

 an inch deep, and give it plenty of heat, and shade it from the rays of the 

 sun till it be fau-ly stnick. By this method, as well as by that of laying, 

 cucumber plants may readily be propagated. Mearns, when gardener at 

 Shobdec Court, near Leominster, propagated his cucumber plants for a 



