Theory and Practice, Applied to the Cultivation of the Cucumber in the Winter Season: To Which Is Added a Chapter on MelonsMoore, Thomas
Science
Theory and Practice, Applied to the Cultivation of the Cucumber in the Winter Season: To Which Is Added a Chapter on Melons
Moore, Thomas
Cucumbers
A forcing house, whilst it secures all the advantages which are presented
by a pit, combines with these, some important points which are peculiarly
its own: by adopting a pit, we provide a structure of which Cucumbers
manifest their approval, by thriving equally as well as in their more
ancient location on a dung bed; but further than this, a pit enables us to
dispense with much of the labour, and all the filth, and the uncertainty
which are consequent on the use of fermenting manure as a means of keeping
up the temperature in which they are grown. In a small forcing house,
besides these advantages being secured, all the operations of care and
culture, can be performed just when they become necessary, without
exposing the tender foliage of plants which have been submitted to an
artificially elevated temperature, to the chilling influence of cold air,
which is admitted whenever the sashes of an ordinary frame or of a pit,
are opened, in order to bestow these necessary attentions. It may be urged
that a dung bed has still the advantage, on the ground of economy; but
when a fair calculation is made of labour and loss or anxiety on the one
hand, and of duration on the other, such an assumption, will be quite
untenable. Neatness, convenience, certainty, and economy, are the
principal points of advantage which are gained by the adoption of pits
heated by means of hot water, over those of a structure, depending for its
supply of heat, on the aid of fermenting masses; whilst the attainment of
a still greater degree both of convenience, and of certainty, which may be
secured by cultivation in forcing houses, point out at once the advantages
which render such houses, preferable to pits.
The application of the gutter system of heating, was not long since
thought to be an improvement of great importance, and there can be no
question but that it affords a means of regulating the moisture of the
atmosphere of hothouses, in conjunction with the temperature, which prior
to its introduction had not been attained; and as such, it is worthy of
extensive adoption: it requires however some judgement in its adaptation
to particular structures, and to render, it suitable, to effect any
particular object for which it may be employed.
The tank system as a means of applying bottom heat, employed either in
conjunction with the gutters, or with ordinary piping, to supply heat to
the atmosphere, is the most important advance which has hitherto been made
towards supplying the wants of those plants, which require such peculiar
aid; and with reference to the Cucumber, it may be regarded as furnishing
a new era in its cultivation.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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