CUCUMBER. 
51 
should be set, and shaded for two or three days from the heat of the sun, that 
they may strike root; after which time it will be useful to expose them to 
the sun and air, as often as the weather will permit. When they have at¬ 
tained the height of four or five inches, they should be gently fastened down 
to the soil, in different directions; and the branches afterwards produced 
ought to be treated in a similar manner, as it will much contribute to for¬ 
ward th a ir maturity. In the course of a month the flowers will appear, and, 
shortly alter, tha rudiments of the fruit. The glasses should now be care¬ 
fully covered during the night, and the plants gently sprinkled with water in 
the day time. These will produce fruit till midsummer, and may be suc¬ 
ceeded by a second crop, which is to be raised nearly in the same manner as 
the earlier cucumbers, with this only difference, that the former should be 
sown toward the end of March, or the beginning of April, and that it re¬ 
quires less care and attention.”— Dom. Encyc. 
The smallest degree of heat for forcing cucumber plants, at the coldest 
time of night, is 58 degrees ; and the greatest heat necessary in the day time 
is 65 degrees. 
* l Well preparing the dung is of the greatest importance in forcing the cu r 
cumber, and if not done before it is made into a bed, it cannot be done after, 
as it requires turning and watering to cause it to ferment freely and sweetly; 
fresh dung from the stable will require at least six weeks 7 preparation before 
it will be fit to receive the plants. A month before it is made into a bed, it 
should be laid into a heap, turned three times, and well shaken to pieces 
with a fork, and the outsides of the heap turned into the middle, and the mid¬ 
dle to the outsides, that the whole may have a regular fermentation; and if 
any appear dry, it should be made wet, keeping it always between the two 
extremes of wet and dry. A dry spot of ground should be chosen to prepare 
the dung on, that the water may drain away from the bottom of the heap. 
The dung having been a month in heap, I make the bed as follows:—I form 
a stratum one foot high, of wood of any kind, but if large the better; (old 
root6 of trees, or any other of little value will do;) this is to drain the water 
from the bottom of the bed; for, after a month’s preparation, with every 
care, it will frequently heat itself dry, and require water in large quantities, 
which, if not allowed to pass off freely, will cause an unwholesome steam to 
rise, in v/liich the cucumber-plant w T ill not grow freely: on this bottom of 
wood I make the bed, four feet high, with dung, gently beating it down with 
a fork : this is done about the 1st November, and by the month of February 
the four feet of dung will not be more than two feat thick, which, with the foot 
of wood at the bottom, will make the bed three feet high; this I consider a 
good height, for, if lower, it cannot be so well heated by linings, which is 
the only method of warming it in the months of February and March, as by 
that time the first heat of the bed will have quite declined. Having made 
the bed, 1 put on the frames and lights, which I shut close till the heat rises 
