nor suffer any serious decline of temperature during the prevalence of sharp frost and keen winds.  For late autumn supply any kind of house will suffice, but best of all an airy span.  A brick pit will answer every purpose from October to March with good management, and fermenting materials will afford the needful heat.  In such cases trenches should be provided for occasional renewal of the bottom heat.  But a roomy house and a service of hot water justly stand in favour with experienced cultivators, as combining the necessary conditions with convenience of management.

For winter culture, plants are raised from seeds and from cuttings.  Seedling plants are the most vigorous, but they require a little more time than cuttings to arrive at a fruiting state.  For pot culture cuttings are preferable, as only a moderate crop is expected, and quickness of production is of great importance.  It is usual to sow the first lot of seeds on the 1st of September, and to sow again on the 1st of October and the 1st of November; after which it is not advisable to sow again until the 1st of February for the spring crop.  If the management is good, the first sowing will be in fruit by the time the third batch of seed is sown, say, by the first week of November, and thenceforward throughout the winter there should be no break in the supply.

The management of Winter Cucumbers turns upon details chiefly, and will be found in the end to depend rather upon care than skill.  The general principles are the same as in growing Cucumbers in frames, the task for the cultivator being to carry them out successfully.  Begin by sowing the seed singly in small pots in light turfy loam, or peat with which a fair proportion of sharp sand has been mixed.  These pots to be placed in a heat of 70 deg. to 75 deg., and for plants to last long the lower temperature is preferable.  As regards the next stage, the plants may be trained up rafters, or spread out on beds, the first being always the better plan where it happens to be convenient.  But the prudent cultivator will not be tied to rules; he will cut his coat according to his cloth, and while he has a house of Cucumbers trained to the roof, he will, perhaps, also have a pit filled with plants on beds.  To stop severely is bad practice, for vigorous growth is wanted; but a certain amount of stopping must be done to promote an even growth, and to distribute the fruit fairly both in space and time.  We have already admitted that in some books on gardening too much has been said about soil.  In many places a suitable turfy loam, or a good fibrous peat, may be obtained, and the accidents that have befallen Cucumbers have usually been the result of bad management in respect of heat, water, and air, rather than the use of unsuitable soil.  But it must not be supposed that we are careless about this matter.  Neither a pasty clay, a sour sticky loam, nor a poor sandy or chalky soil will produce fine Cucumbers.  On the other hand, rank manure and poor leaf-mould are both unfavourable materials.  There is nothing like mellow loam, which can be enriched and modified at discretion, without going to extremes.