132 
REVIEW. . 
tom heat is not only unnecessary but exceedingly injurious to the plants, while 
they are in a young state. 
On returning to the objectionable parts of these pits will be found those of 
the “ structure being fixed, and a perpetual habitation for milepedes.” This 
latter is one so commonly understood as to render observations thereupon use¬ 
less ; but such not being the case with the former, the following ideas, it is hoped, 
will prove serviceable. When a structure is about to be formed, in which the 
C.'rape Vine, the Peach Tree, and indeed almost any other plant or plants are to 
be cultivated, those under whose management it is to be placed, are earnestly re¬ 
commended to have it built so as to have an elevation of about forty-five de¬ 
grees; but in the cultivation of the Cucumber, &c. elevation is scarcely thought 
of by some; and even among those who have condescended to bestow a little 
attention to the subject, are those who have asserted it to be a matter of little 
consequence. True it is that the cucumbers do not require so great an elevation 
as that above named, but is it right or reasonable from hence to conclude that 
the subject is one of little or no consequence? surely not. But we sometimes say, 
necessity has no law, and in this case, generally speaking, reason and right have 
given place to its imperative demand; for let it be remembered, that, although 
the cucumber requires a considerable elevation in the frame or lights, in an 
early part of the season, for the purpose of receiving the advantage of the rays 
of the sun, and also to prevent an over condensation of vapour; yet, when the 
season has advanced, and consequently the rays of the sun are radiating power¬ 
fully upon the glass, its elevation cannot well be too little, and in this respect 
the treatment which is highly beneficial to the plants in one season of the year, 
may be, and is injurious at another. But it has just been observed that, necessity 
has no law, and the case before us is a proof of its truth ; for when a bed or pit 
is to be built, there being no alternative when finished, a middle course is pur¬ 
sued as a preventative to either extreme, and this may be said to be favourable 
or proper only in a medium or moderate state of the weather. 
After stating the time and mode of sowing the seeds, and rearing the plants 
for the fruiting bed, he next proceeds to give us his mode of building a cucum¬ 
ber bed, which consists of a proper quantity of dung and earth well drained for 
the plants to feed in, with heat sufficient for their growth, without doing violence 
to them in the first instance, but capable of being renewed to any extent at plea¬ 
sure, and an elevation suitable to the season. The materials wanted for the pur¬ 
pose are, a quantity of stones, or brick-bat rubble, a quantity of good stable 
dung, or a mixture of it w ith other fermenting substances, such as leaves of trees, 
a quantity of wattled wrnrk, some good soil laid w'here it can become dry, which 
should be of two kinds, one should be good sound earth, the other a composi¬ 
tion of vegetable substances well reduced, and last a common frame and lights 
of the plainest description. 
In building the bed, the first thing is to drive four stakes or posts into the 
ground, the width, length, and the intended height of the bed, which should be 
four feet high at the back, and three feet six inches in front. Then form the 
foundation of rubble and wattled work, held together by two rows of stakes, 
fifteen inches high at the backhand one foot in front; then build tw'o dung 
walls, the height of the posts at each end, trimming the inner edges of the w'alls, 
and making the bottom of the space between them quite clean. This space 
must then be covered by pieces of wood, strong enough to bear the soil for the 
