forcing cucumbers. 
121 
be protect* d by band glasses. This would insure their heading 
before the approach of extreme warm weather, which is 
very injurious to Cauliflower. 
FORCING CUCUMBERS. 
To produce Cucumbers at an early season, should be an 
object of emulation with every gardener. The business of 
forcing them should commence about eight or ten weeks 
before the fruit is desired, and a succession of plants should 
be raised to provide for accidents. Some choose the Short 
Prickly, others the Long Green and White Spined ; and seed 
two or three years old is generally preferred, as it is not so apt 
to run to vines. 
The seed is generally sown in pots or boxes of light rich 
mould, and placed in a hot-bed ; and some sow the seed in 
the earth of a small bed prepared for the purpose. In either 
case, as soon as the plants have fully expanded their two 
seed leaves, they may be transplanted into pots, putting 
three plants in each pot ; when this is done, apply water 
warmed to the temperature of the bed, and shut down the 
glasses, keeping them a little shaded by throwing a mat over 
the glass, till the plants have taken root. When they are 
about a month old, they will be fit to transplant into the fruit- 
ing bed. 
To prepare the dung properly, is of the greatest impor- 
tance in forcing the Cucumber, and if not done before it is 
made into a bed, it cannot be done afterward, as it requires 
turning and managing to cause it to ferment freely and 
sweetly. Fresh dung from the stable should be laid in a heap, 
turned three times, and well mixed with a fork ; if any ap- 
pears dry, it should be made wet, always keeping it between 
the two extremes of wet and dry, that the whole may have 
a regular fermentation. 
A dry situation should be chosen on which to foim beds, 
11 
