50 AMERICAN KITCHEN GARDENER. 
apt to run luxuriantly in vine, and the plants from it do not snow fruit w 
soon nor so abundantly as those from seed of a greater age. But when seed 
has been kept more than four years, it is sometimes found to be too much 
weakened.’ 7 Mr. Armstrong says, u A debate has long existed, on the pre¬ 
ference to be given to old or new seeds, and which, like many others, appears 
to be interminable. The Abbe Rozier and his followers think that the 
most vigorous plants of all species and kinds are the best, and, accordingly, 
prefer new seeds, because more likely to produce such than old ones: 
while, on the other hand, their opponents maintain, that plants may have too 
much vigor, as well as too little ; and that, whenever an excess of vigor exists, 
according to all vegetable analogy, it shows itself in the production of stems 
and leaves, not in that of flowers and fruits—whence they conclude, that 
old cucumber seeds, (like those of all the rest of the cucurbitacece family,) 
are better than new, because less vigorous. The best practical use to be 
made of this controversy is to sow old seeds in the spring , when vegetation 
is most powerful, and new ones in July when it begins to abate.” 
Forcing cucumbers .— 41 Towards the latter end of January, a quantity of 
fresh horse dung should be procured with the litter among it, to which a 
small portion of sea-coal ashes may well be added. In the course of four 
or five days, the dung begins to heat, when a little of it may be drawn flat 
on the outside, and covered two inches thick with good earth : over which a 
bell glass ought to be placed; and two days after, when the soil is warm, 
the seeds should be sown, covered with fresh mould one-fourth of an inch 
thick, and the glass again set over it. This must be screened by a mat dur¬ 
ing the night, and in four days the young plants will germinate. As soon 
as they appear, the .rest of the dung must be beaten close together into a bed 
for one or two more lights, which bed should be three feet thick, and 
covered three inches deep with fine, fresh earth ; the frame is then to be put 
on ; and during the night, or in bad weather, sheltered with mats. When 
the soil is hot enough, the young plants must be removed into it, and set at 
two inches distance, the glasses being occasionally raised to admit fresh air, 
and also frequently turned, to prevent the wet steam of the dung from drop¬ 
ping down on the plants. These ought to be watered at stated times, with 
tepid or luke-warm water; and, as they increase in size, should be earthed 
up; an operation which will considerably augment their strength If the 
bed be not hot enough, fresh litter should be laid round its sides; but if it 
be too warm, it should be perforated with a stake to give vent to the heat; 
and, as soon as the bed acquires a proper temperature, the holes are to be 
closed up with fresh earth. When the plants begin to shoot their third or 
rough leaf, another bed should be prepared for them, similar to the first; and, 
when the soil is thoroughly warmed, they should be transplanted into it, in 
holes about a foot deep, and nine inches broad, filled with light, fine, fresh 
moo laid in a hollow, circular form. Ir each of these holes four plants 
