The art of promoting the growth of the cucumber and melon / in a series of directions for the best means to be adopted / in bringing them to a complete state of perfection

by Thomas Watkins

Four loads of dung will be sufficient for a three-light box, and the same in proportion to the number you intend to make use of. Let it be put together a fortnight before the seed is sown; be very particular in giving it plenty of water, and pack it close together. After it has laid a week turn it, and if dry, moisten it with water. Let it continue in this state another week, when the same directions as before given must be observed; and, in a week more, the bed will be in a fit condition to make up.

The bottom must be prepared in the same manner as directed for the seed-bed; then form the bed of dung four feet three inches at the back, by four feet in the front, allowing for a cavity of about ten inches between each box; then place the boxes on, and put the shovellings inside, in the proportion of two or three barrows-full to a light. In forming the bed, it is the best plan to make it in layers of about a foot each, which will cause the dung to be much better mixed, than if all finished at first, of an equal height. Be very particular in separating the dung, and breaking it to pieces, afterwards beating it well down with a fork.

After the bed has been thus prepared, put the lights on, and shut them down close until the heat begins to rise. When such is the case, give them about an inch of air; and in three or four days wrap the bed all round with dry litter or useless hay, eighteen inches wide from the bottom, sloping it in to about a foot as high as the bed, which will greatly tend to promote a regular heat. As the careful wrapping up of the bed is an essential requisite, means must be taken to keep it close, and protect it from any injury that may arise in consequence of tempestuous weather, this may be accomplished by means of sharp-pointed sticks, with hooks in the form of a peg, and about the size and length of a broom-stick. Thrust these through the litter into the bed, about half way up, one to each light, at the back and front, and two at each end.

After the bed has been made about a week or ten days, take off the boxes and lights, in order to level it, and let it have from four to six inches fall from the back to the front; in this, however, you must be in some degree guided by the form of the boxes, which it is necessary should have a good fall, that the plants may derive benefit from the sun; then fork up the bed about a foot deep, and again place on the boxes and lights, giving nearly two inches of air, both night and day. In about four or five days it will be necessary to again fork it up, and give it some water, in the proportion of two pots to a light. This must be repeated every two or three days, until the bed is perfectly sweet, which is usually the case in three or four weeks, applying water during that time, according to the state of the bed.

When you find that the bed is properly purified, put in the sifted leaf mould. A three-light box will require a large barrow-full; the quantity for a one-light being about four shovels. After this, add to the wrapping some sweet litter or hay, increasing it to nearly the top of the boxes, and apply about two pots of water to each of the cavities, taking care to fill them up to nearly the tops of the boxes, with short sweet mulshy litter. This is a point but very little known, yet of the greatest importance in the culture of cucumbers; for when the weather begins to grow severe, if there is no cavity, and the boxes are placed close together, in the usual manner, the outsides are very liable to become damp, and the cold, penetrating through, is certain of doing the plants material injury.

Put a pot of plants in the middle of a three-light box, and at night admit nearly two inches of air, covering them with a single mat; and if on the following day the plants look well, they may be safely ridged out.

It is requisite that both the boxes and lights should be painted every year, at least a month before they are wanted for use; but if this cannot be conveniently done, be particular in washing them with boiling water, in which some unslacked lime must be mixed. This will in some measure answer the purpose of paint in effectually destroying the vermin, or the eggs which may have been deposited in the crevices of the wood.

After the plants are ridged out, wash them every morning, on the outside, and about once a week in the inside, which will tend to reflect the light, and cause them to thrive much better. When you wash the outside, push them down about two or three inches, which will prevent the water from perishing the lining at the side of the boxes. If the plants have received no injury, and are able to bear the heat of the bed, ridge them out, letting the hills be about nine inches high, covering the roots about an inch round, and being an inch higher than they were when in the pots. If there is any surplus mould, rake it with the hand all over the bed; then water the plants, taking care, at the same time to sprinkle the bed regularly upon the surface. Close them down for the space of ten minutes, and then admit an inch of air. If the weather is mild, in an hour it may be increased to two inches, and a single mat only will be requisite at night. If, however, the weather is windy, cover them at night with a double mat, or a single one and a little hay.