THE AMATEUR’S KITCHEN GARDEN. 
163 
fast-growing plants, they abound in watery juices, and it is a 
commonly employed argument in defence of the cucumber 
against its many adversaries, that as it contains about 90 per 
cent, of water, the remaining 10 per cent, of substance cannot 
be pernicious — a reductio ad absurdum. The constitution of 
the plant does in part suggest the routine of cultivation it 
requires. Its rapid extension, and early and abundant 
fruitfulness, suggest that it requires generous treatment, and 
is equally unfitted to cope with starvation or with the arrest- 
ing action of an occasionally too low a temperature. Any 
serious check will ruin the plant right off ; and as regards 
food, it must have abundance near at hand, and in a state to 
be quickly assimilated, for it cannot, like a pine tree fast 
anchored in the rocks, employ its roots for centuries in 
searching in every direction for infinitesimal supplies of 
nutriment. What is true of the cucumber in these respects 
is true also of its kindred, the melons, gourds, and marrows, 
the principal difference in the requirements of these being in 
temperature. 
Raising Cucumber Plants from Seeds and Cuttings is 
an extremely simple business, and for all general purposes 
seedling plants are the best. When to sow is of more im- 
portance than how to sow, for by whatever system cucumbers 
are to be grown, it is a great advantage to begin with strong- 
plants raised from seed for the purpose. When the month of 
May has come, and the amateur has cleared out the frames 
in which bedding plants have been wintered, and proposes to 
employ the frames for summer cucumbers, it is a serious 
matter to have to begin de novo by sowing seed. It would be 
better to buy plants than to wait for seeds sown so late ; but 
it would be still better to have ready to hand a nice lot of 
plants raised at home from seed sown in February or March. 
The usual mode of procedure is to sow half-a-dozen seeds in a 
five-inch pot, and to place the pots on a warm dung-bed or 
in a propagating-house. It is better, however, to sow in 
large shallow pans, as the young plants can be more easily 
lifted out and potted separately without injury to their tender 
roots ; but the best way of all is to sow the seeds singly in 
three-inch pots. Any rich light soil, with a rather large 
admixture of sand, will serve the purpose, and the seeds 
should be inserted sharp end downwards about an inch deep. 
A heat of 70° to 80° will bring the young plants to light in 
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