254 THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN'S COMPANION, January 13, 1857. 
that a more practical statement on that subject has 
never been penned in these pages than that by Mr. Fish; 
yet I can conceive it possible for “ J. C. W.” to fail to 
draw hence the exact information which his particular 
case seems to me to require, and that has induced me to 
send as supplemental the following remarks:— 
First of all, let it be practically understood by amateurs 
that growing Cucumbers in summer and winter are two 
distinct and very different operations; that one man 
may be successful in growing Cucumbers in winter, 
which is the more difficult, and yet fail in his attempts 
the following summer, or the contrary. 
In summer the plants are, as it were, under natural 
influences, that is, in comparison with the necessary treat¬ 
ment in winter, which forces nature at an unnatural 
season, so to speak; but forcing “ nature” in the winter 
cultivation of Cucumbers is just as easy as assisting 
nature by forcing, provided that you do not force beyond 
nature’s bounds. “ J. C. W.” did force beyond the 
point, and that was the sole cause of his failure. 
All this winter I have been and shall be cutting 
Cucumbers abundantly. Mr. Beaton has seen twenty 
brace of tine Cucumbers which I cut in one week about 
the middle of December; but if I kept up such heat as 
“ J. C. W.” speaks of, I question if I should have been 
able to cut a single brace in the time, or even if I could 
have kept my plants in sufficient health to bear in 
February. His heat was fully 10° higher, both by night 
and by day, than is now found to be the proper point of 
heat for bearing Cucumbers in winter; that is, con¬ 
sidering the quantity of air he admits, he must keep up 
an unnecessary degree of heat to balance the cooling 
effects of so much air. I hardly ever open a sash or 
ventilator of my Cucumber-house all the winter; yet it 
is a new house, and is as close as workmanship could 
make it; but on a sunny day, if the glass rises as high 
as “ J. C. W.” aims at, 1 must “give air” of course. 
The truth is, there is not an exotic house in the 
country where the heat is maintained above 50° that is 
hardly air proof enough against a north-easter or any 
other cutting wind; and those who may doubt the 
assertion have only to look along the roof of a nonpareil 
house on a very frosty or a rainy morning, and they will 
then see sufficient steam escaping to tell them that no 
opening of sashes is required. 
It seems to me that all the present theory about the 
admission of air among house plants is founded only 
on the requirements of such plants as are hardy enough 
to live out a long winter at a temperature varying from 
30° to 45° or 50°, and that those who apply this theory 
to an entirely different set of plants can only escape 
constant failures by the most persevering diligence. 
Another point which is of primary importance in 
forcing the Cucumber, and probably other races of 
plants, is never to generate steam, or, if it escapes by 
accident from a hot-water boiler, that the arrangements 
should be such as would exclude it from coming in con¬ 
tact with forced plants. When hot-water pipes are above 
a certain degree of heat, if they are syringed the house 
is soon filled with steam or vapour so very hot as to be 
nearly as dangerous as steam itself to all tender foliage, 
whether of Cucumbers or any other kind of plant; but, 
as Cucumbers should not be syringed over the leaves 
from the beginning of November to the end of January, 
we must supply an equivalent in the shape of mild, 
genial vapour, and that is very easily effected by first 
covering the hot-water pipes with some light material, 
such as old pieces of canvass or sacking, Frigi Domo, or 
moss, any of which, when syringed over, will prevent 
the sudden and violent hot vapour that would issue from 
bare pipes, and will continue to give off the mildest 
kind of vapour for a considerable time after the pipes 
are syringed. 
Still, as it is hard to give up any old practice all at 
once, let me advise those who prefer to syringe over the 
leaves of Cucumbers during those three months to use j 
rain water of about the same temperature as that of the 
Cucumber-house ; for hard water seldom fails to bring 
on mildew wherever it lodges on or about the leaves ami 
stems. 
Another essential rule is not to cut back or even stop 5 
any of the shoots during November, December, and 
January, and not allow the plants to bear but the most 
moderate crop all that time, which is the only critical 
season for Cucumbers. 
Peat is the safest earth to grow winter Cucumbers in j 
when they are planted out in a bed, but not the best for 
pots and boxes. The surface of the peat bed should be 
frequently stirred, and a little dry peat sprinkled all over 
it, which tends materially to keep> under mildew and 
unwholesome damp. 
I have an experiment now in hand, however—that of 
growing some Cucumber plants in free, open loam and 
old cowdung. The result as yet is quite satisfactory. I 
have plenty of Cucumbers on them at present, and the 
plants are everything that I could wish for. Allow me to 
state in conclusion, that the best winter Cucumbers I 
have ever seen were those which were grown by Mr. 
Latter, when I lived, as it were, next door to him in 
Suffolk. He was the raiser of the Victory of England 
Cucumber, and he is now a nurseryman at Bramford, 
near Ipswich, and if these notes should come under his 
eye he will see that I have been taking a leaf out of his 
book. His method was briefly this:—Plant in peat, 
keep it often stirred on the top, and top-dress it fre¬ 
quently with dry, crumbly peat. Never stop the plants 
in November, December, and January, and do not 
syringe them in those months. Never syringe over a 
naked hot-water pipe in winter, but have the pipes 
slightly covered, and then syringe them frequently, that 
is, according to the weather and the consequent state of 
the fires, and, meantime, do not over-crop your plants.— 
D. FI. Kidd, Gardener to the Marquis of Breadalbane, 
Stud House, Hampton Court. 
TRITONIA AUREA CULTURE. 
I perceive in The Cottage Gardener, at page 14, “ An 
Old Subscriber ” is inquiring for advice liow to treat Trito¬ 
nia aurea after it has done flowering, and the answer to 
that inquiry is, That the roots should he shaken out, and 
then cleaned and repotted in the month of March or 
April. 
If “An Old Subscriber” will examine his pots of 
Tritonia as soon as he sees this he will find that his bulbs 
have already made fresh growth, and are ready to start away 
as soon as they get fight and sun. This growth, I think, is 
quite enough to indicate that they should be potted in 
autumn. 
My practice is to repot them as soon as the flower-stems 
die down, which is about the beginning of November; but 
this partly depends upon the manner in which they are put ! 
to rest. If the plants are ripened in a cold pit, and water i 
gradually withheld from them, they will take to rest about 
the above-stated time; but I have seen them keep green in 
the stems when allowed to stand out of doors, where the 
heavy rains could fall upon them, until December. 
I repot them in autumn as soon as they are nicely at rest, 
using peat, loam, and leaf-soil in about equal parts, with a 
little sand to keep it open ; but any good light compost will 
grow them tolerably well, provided the pots are well drained. 
Although they commence growing in the autumn, they 
will do best in a cold, dry shed, without any water, where ' 
frost will not reach them. 
About March bring them into the light, either in the j 
greenhouse or a cold pit. If you grow them in the green- 1 
house they will require the syringe used pretty freely to the 
under side of the foliage to keep down the red spider, which 
is their greatest enemy. In the months of May or June you 
may set them out in the open air in a sheltered situation 
