Part 1
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THEORY AND PRACTICE, APPLIED TO THE CULTIVATION OF THE CUCUMBER, IN THE WINTER SEASON:
TO WHICH IS ADDED, A CHAPTER ON MELONS:
BY THOMAS MOORE, MEMBER OF THE BOTANICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON.
SECOND EDITION,
WITH AN APPENDIX, CONTAINING REMARKS ON HEATING AERATING, AND COVERING FORCING HOUSES; ON TRANSPLANTING, AND THE USE OF TURF POTS; ON WATERING; ON ATMOSPHERIC HUMIDITY, &c., &c.
LONDON: RICHARD GROOMBRIDGE AND SONS, 5 PATERNOSTER ROW.
MDCCCXLVII.
LONDON: PRINTED BY DAVID M. AIED JAMES ST., COVENT GARDEN.
PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION.
This little treatise is intended as an inducement to young Gardeners especially, to seek for the reasons on which the operations of their daily practice are founded, and by which they are regulated. This announcement is here made, in order to prevent any reader from supposing that the author has unduly estimated the opinions of those who have benefited by a long course of application and experience. As, however, there can be no doubt that there is much to be learned, so is there but little question that there is also much to be unlearned, in the present state of the Science of Horticulture; and these pages are offered without hesitation, as a mite among the accumulating mass of available information on gardening subjects; and in the hope that some amongst those who are seeking to extend their knowledge, may at least be stimulated by their perusal, if they are not otherwise directly benefited.
The great truths which it is the object of this treatise to impress, are these: that the ultimate success of gardening operations does not depend on the performance of any part of them, at a particular time, or in a particular or even superior manner, but rather upon the supplying, in a natural manner, as far as possible, _all the conditions_ which are necessary to the nutrition and perpetuation of plants; and, that it is within the open pathway of Science, and not the bye-ways of empiricism, that the finger-post of direction should be sought.
Royal Botanic Garden, Regent's Park,
March 2nd, 1844.
TO THE SECOND EDITION.
In the present edition, it has been thought best to preserve the original text exactly as it appeared in the first edition. The new matter will be found in the Appendix.
The author may take this opportunity of returning his thanks to those who have noticed and commended the former edition, and of expressing a hope that the present will receive an equal share of favour.
Camden Town, Aug. 1, 1847.
CONTENTS.
CHAP. I. PAGE
Botanical name, and affinities of the Cucumber--properties-- foreign names--improvements in cultivation 9
CHAP. II.
Structures--dung beds--brick pits--forcing houses--gutter system of heating--the tank system--bottom heat--description of Cucumber house--aspect--position--angle--covering 11
CHAP. III.
Propagation by cuttings--early fruitfulness--preservation of varieties--layers--objections to cuttings and layers--seeds-- disadvantages--progressive growth--seed sowing 23
CHAP. IV.
General principles of culture--importance of light--pruning and training 31
CHAP. V.
Composition of the soil--heath soil--leaf mould--preparation of soil--charcoal--manures--liquid manures 36
CHAP. VI.
Application of water to the soil--special conditions-- atmospheric moisture--insects--mildew--canker--mode of watering 42
CHAP. VII.
Regulation of temperature--principles to be kept in view--day and night temperature--deductions 46
CHAP. VIII.
Admission of air--effect of cold air on tender plants-- deterioration--evils resulting from unguarded atmospheric changes--mode of admitting air--atmospheric influence on vegetation--nitrogen--carbon 50
CHAP. IX.
Growth of Persian Melons in summer--peculiarities of treatment--soil--watering--solar heat--light 56
CHAP. X.
Conclusion 59
TREATISE.
CHAP. I.
INTRODUCTORY REMARKS.
The Cucumber, _Cucumis sativa_, is supposed to be a native of the East Indies; but like many other of our culinary plants, the real stations which it naturally has occupied, are involved in obscurity: in habit it is a trailing herb, with thick fleshy stems, broadly palmate leaves, and yellow axillary monæcious flowers. In the natural arrangement of the vegetable kingdom, the genus of which it forms part, ranks in the first grand class, _Vasculares_, or those plants which are furnished with vessels, and woody fibre; in the sub-class _Calycifloræ_, or those in which the stamens are perigynous; and in the order _Cucurbitaceæ_, or that group, of which the genus _Cucurbita_, or Gourd family is the type.
The affinities of this order, are chiefly with _Loasaceæ_, and _Onagraceæ_; with the former it agrees in its inferior unilocular fruit, having a parietal placentæ, and with the latter, in its definite perigynous stamens, single style, and exalbuminous seeds. It has also some affinity with _Passifloraceæ_, and _Papayaceæ_, in the nature of the fruit, and with _Aristolochiaceæ_, in its twining habit, and inferior ovarium. M. Auguste St. Hiliare, also regards it as being related to _Campanulaceæ_, in the perigynous insertion of the stamens, the single style with several stigmas, the inferior ovarium, and in the quinary division of the floral envelope, in connection with the ternary division of the fruit.
The properties of the plants comprised in this natural family, are not numerous; a bitter laxative quality pervades many of them, a familiar example of which is the resinous substance called Colycinthine, the production of the Colocynth gourd, in which the active purgative principle is concentrated, rendering it drastic, and irritating. Among our native plants the roots of _Bryonia dioica_, in common with the perennial roots of all the plants in the order, possess these purgative properties. On the other hand, the seeds are sweet, yielding an abundant supply of oil; and it may be worthy of remark, that they never partake of the properties of the pulp with which they are surrounded in the fruit.
The Cucumber does not possess the properties common to the order, in very powerful degree; its fruit is however too cold for many persons, causing flatulency, diarrhoea, and even cholera; by others, it may be eaten with avidity, without producing any injurious effects.
The names by which the Cucumber is recognised by the Hindoos, are _Ketimon_, and _Timou_. In the French, it is called _Concombre_; in the German, _Gurke_; and in the Italian, _Citriuolo_. As a cultivated plant, it is of nearly equal antiquity with the Vine; being mentioned by the writer of the Pentateuch, as being cultivated extensively in Egypt, above 3000 years since.
The cultivation of this plant, and the production of fine fruit at an early season, is an object of emulation among gardeners of the present day; and from this cause, many important improvements in the mode of its cultivation have been effected. The vast increase of means, arising from an acquaintance with powerful agents, formerly unknown, which are available by the present and rising races of gardeners, enable them to secure the same important results which cost their predecessors much both of labour and anxiety, with a comparatively small amount of the former, and a degree of certainty at which they could never arrive. The agents which an enlightened age has brought under controul, are indeed powerful engines, which require much skill in their adaptation and management; but the knowledge necessary to effect this, is so firmly and inseparably connected with the first principles of cultivation, that an acquaintance with these, will at all times supply a safe and unerring guide to their application.
It is to assist the young gardener in this application of principles, to the growth of the Cucumber in the winter season, that these pages are designed; and of those who may differ from the opinions which are here expressed, it is only required that they should receive a calm and deliberate consideration--a consideration unbiassed by prejudice, and unmixed with any of that feverish excitement after novelties, which with gardeners, as well as with all other classes of society, is becoming far too prevalent, and intense.
CHAP. II.
ON THE STRUCTURES ADAPTED FOR THE GROWTH OF CUCUMBERS.
I will preface the following remarks on the structures adapted for the growth of Cucumbers, by stating, that a forcing house, a pit, and a common frame, present the means of bringing this fruit to its perfection, equally, one with the other, provided that a course of cultivation suitable to the structure, is followed out; the comparative merits of each, depend not so much on the nature of the results which may be obtained by adopting them, as on the facilities they afford for the attainment of those results.
The use of the common frame, and the ordinary hotbed of fermenting manure, nevertheless involves these difficulties:--the fermentation is liable to become excessive, and that in a very rapid manner, and also to decline as rapidly; the heat, when declining, cannot be speedily restored in unpropitious weather; it is materially checked in its action, by that particular state of the weather, which renders its efficient action most essential; it involves almost an infinitude of labour; and after all, it is uncertain in its action: when such difficulties as these, are overcome, Cucumbers can be grown to perfection, on dung beds, assisted by the common garden frame and sash.
The brick pit, when heated by fermenting manure, presents difficulties of the same nature with the preceeding, though in a less powerful degree: but when these structures are heated by means of hot water, in any of its various modes of application, there need be no irregularity, nor uncertainty in its action; because the supply of the elements of vegetable developement, and of the agents by whose aid they are applied, may, to a very great extent, go on uninterruptedly.
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.
The importance of bottom heat in the culture of tender plants, has always been well known by its practical effects. The mean temperature of the soil, at a slight distance below the surface, is universally above that of the superincumbent air; and consequently some degree of bottom heat is always supplied to plants, in a state of nature. Naturally, by means of subterraneous heat, and also by the absorption of the sun's rays during the time they are forcibly directed towards the earth, it possesses the means whereby any material degree of cold at the roots of plants is prevented; and when the soil is acted on by the unveiled sun of an eastern sky, we cannot but feel certain, that even a considerable amount of heat must be experienced: hence arises the importance of taking advantage of every ray of sun which our climate affords, when the culture of the Cucumber, or of any native of warmer latitudes, is attempted out of doors in this country; and also of using every possibly available means of increasing rather than diminishing the temperature of the soil: and hence too, in forcing not only the Cucumber, but also every other plant which requires to be submitted to a confined atmosphere, and an elevated temperature, arises the necessity of providing such a degree of warmth at the root, as may tend to keep its vital powers in a vigorous state of action; it will effect this, by acting in conjunction with moisture, as a solvent of the food which is primarily contained in the soil in a solid form, but can only be taken up by the capillary action of the spongioles of the roots, when converted into a fluid state. The science of Chemistry has taught us that the ingredients composing the soil, act on, and dissolve, and combine with each other in various ways, sometimes being simply dissolved and held in solution, and at other times, entering into new combinations, and forming new compounds; but in all cases, the natural agents, heat and moisture, are necessary to produce these results, and to present to the tender roots of plants, food so duly prepared, as to be fit for their assimilation. Warmth in the soil, acts beneficially also, by preventing the sudden or undue interruption of the excitability of plants growing in it, which would be likely to result from the lowering of the temperature of the plants by evaporation, were it not for the action of the antagonist force, existing in and exercised by the heated soil, which heat, is communicated to, and absorbed by the plants.
It may be regarded as an established and universal rule, that all plants require the soil, and the atmosphere in which they are cultivated, to correspond with the natural circumstances under which they flourish; and as it has been repeatedly ascertained that the soil is naturally a degree or two above the temperature of the atmosphere, we have certain and unerring data for the application of bottom heat, and no more powerful evidence than this can be desired, to condemn at once the application of a _very powerful degree of heat_, at the roots of plants.
The importance of bottom heat in the culture of tender plants, being a practical fact established beyond question, another consideration arises as to the best means of producing it, and of regulating its application. Various substances and materials have been submitted to a process of fermentation, and so employed to effect it: stable manure, tanner's bark, and the leaves of trees, are among the principal of these materials, and either of them will supply just what the plants require, as truly as these wants can be supplied by any other means; but from their very nature, they are violent, and fluctuating, and ephemeral in their action, and setting aside the labour which the employment of them necessarily involves, we have in these particulars, the special points in which the tank system of applying bottom heat far excels them: it is uniform, and constant, in its action; there need be no apprehension of the soil becoming overheated, for the source whence it derives its warmth ought never to boil; neither need there be any fear of its decline, or of a want of power, for when once thoroughly heated, a body of water will part with it in such a manner, that a very little attention to the fire, and a very little expenditure of fuel, will maintain its temperature for an almost incredible length of time; and as to power, it never should for a moment form a question, because a powerful degree of bottom heat ought never to be applied: a close attention for one or two hours during the twenty four which form a day, will maintain any apparatus in an effective state of action, if it is properly erected. How different is this, to what has been in days now past! when in rigorous weather, with the heat of his dung bed declining, the cultivator knew that at the peril of his crop, he scarcely dared to attempt to revive it, without involving a more serious because an accelerated evil; at any rate, if at an immense sacrifice of labour, his dung casings were replenished piece by piece, he knew too well, that often many days would elapse, before their action would be efficient and satisfactory, unless indeed an unlimited supply of materials, were in a constant state of preparation. By means of the tank, a fire could be lighted up, and the required effect produced in as many hours, as days would have been formerly required.
What has been already advanced, tends to the conclusion, that small forcing houses are preferable, and in the end more economical than pits and dung beds; and that the tank as a means of supplying bottom heat, is preferable to the use of fermenting materials; _because the results in each case, are more perfectly under controul_. Whilst on this part of the subject, I may be allowed to mention an error which is somewhat prevalent: We frequently hear of the humid nature of the heat given off by hot water pipes, in comparison with that derived from such appliances, as a flue; it is not unfrequently asserted, that the heat thus derived is so moist, so genial, so peculiarly adapted to plants: there can be no doubt but that the heat thus obtained is infinitely preferable to that obtained through the medium of flues, generally speaking; but its superiority consists rather in its purity, its freeness from noxious gasses, than in its possessing a greater degree of moisture. Heat--that is--caloric, is the same, whatever may be the medium by which it may be conducted; and in the case of hot water pipes, they give off that which has been conducted to them by the water, directly from the fire, the water acting as a mere conductor; it is difficult to conceive any thing more thoroughly devoid of moisture than the heat thus communicated: let any one who doubts this, place a damp cloth on a series of hot water pipes when in action, and the result will soon work conviction. With these general remarks, I will proceed to describe the kind of structure which I regard as being peculiarly adapted to the growth of Cucumbers; and notice some of the conditions which it is necessary to keep in view: the engraving on the next page, represents such a structure.
The aspect of the Cucumber house, should be nearly S.S.E; or in other words--it should be so regulated between the points south and east, that whilst the rays of the sun will be admitted as fully and as early as possible in the morning, there may be no obstruction offered to their more powerful action as that body approaches the meridian. In the growth of all tender plants, light and sun heat are required during the winter months as well as in summer, and there can be no greater error as regards the erection of structures devoted to such purposes, than to provide for their admitting the direct rays of the sun in the earlier part of the day, at the expense of refracting and thereby weakening, to a greater degree than is really unavoidable, the power of the noon-tide rays of that invigorating and life-sustaining agent: during the summer months, though plants then require both light and sun heat, yet the case is different; the sun's rays have then much greater power, and it is found that their influence is sufficient, without at all times admitting them directly on the plants growing in these artificial atmospheres.
The position of the Cucumber house, with reference to the ground line, must be determined by local circumstances; if the situation and sub-soil be dry, it may be carried below the surface in the manner represented in the annexed engraving, of which (_a_) is the ground line, (_b_) the pathway, and (_c_) the lowest point excavated: the same course may be adopted if the soil, though not naturally so dry as this, can be rendered so by thorough drainage; but when the ground does not admit of perfect drainage, the structure must be sufficiently elevated to avoid the risk of injury from the dampness of the locality.
The angle of elevation is not, as it is sometimes asserted to be, a point of indifference, though mathematical accuracy is certainly by no means required: in the annexed engraving, the angle of the roof is about 55°, this provides for the admission of the sun's rays in the winter months, when his position is comparatively low in the horizon, to a much greater extent than could take place if a more ordinary slope were adopted. A still more elevated pitch would doubtless effect this object in a still more perfect manner; but would not be equally applicable to the requirements from a permanent structure, which would be wanted for summer as well as winter use.