106 TH E HOT-HOUSE. [Jan. 
lar-ways along the middle, two or three inches asunder: and thus, 
the pots, &c. being placed as above, the beans will soon sprout and 
come up. 
When the beans have sprouted, sprinkle the earth with a little 
water, which will help the plants to rise: when they are up, water 
them frequently. 
Let the plants be supplied with proper waterings two or three 
times a week, and they will grow freely, and produce plentiful crops 
of beans in March and April. 
Plant a successional crop in a fortnight or three weeks after, in 
small pots, ready for turning out with balls of earth into the larger 
pots, &c. 
Of Cucumbers in the Hot-house. 
Cucumbers are sometimes raised early, in tolerably good perfec- 
tion, in the hot-house. 
This is effected by sowing the seed, or planting young plants, in 
large pots, or oblong narrow boxes, which are to be placed in a con- 
venient situation in the hot-house, near the glasses; the boxes for 
this purpose may be the same length and depth as for kidney-beans: 
fill the pots or boxes with rich earth, and place them up near the 
top glasses, behind, or upon the top of the back or end flues, with 
the bottoms raised or detached two or three inches, that the heat of 
the flues may transpire freely, without injury to the plants. 
but the best situation in the hot-house for cucumber plants, is to 
place them, by means of supports, within about fifteen or eighteen 
inches of the top glasses, nearly under or towards the upper ends of 
the superior tier of lights, not to shade, &c the other plants below. 
The seed may either be sown in small pots, and placed in a dung 
hot-bed, or in the bark-bed in the hot-house to raise the plants, or 
may be sown at once in the pots or boxes, six or eight seeds in a 
small patch; or in a box of two or three feet long you may sow two 
such patches: and when the plants are up, they should be thinned 
out, leaving two or three of the strongest plants in each place. 
Or, if you raise the plants first in small pots plunged in the bark- 
bed, or in a dung hot-bed, jet them be afterwards transplanted, with 
a ball of earth about their roots, into the boxes or larger pots. 
When the runners of the plants have advanced to the outside of 
the pots or boxes, you may fix up some laths to support the vines or 
runners, which should be fastened thereto. Let them have water 
frequently, for they will require a little every other day at least. 
Early Strawberries in the Hot-house. 
Strawberries may be brought to early perfection in the hot-house; 
and, if desired, this is the time to begin to introduce therein some 
pots of good-bearing plants. 
The scarlet and alpine strawberries are the kinds that succeed 
