es which we devote to the cultivation of such plants
as the Cucumber, which are naturally habituated to an eastern clime,
should be so designed, as to offer the least possible obstruction to its
entrance: how important, too, that the glass we employ, which in its
purest state, offers considerable obstruction, by refracting the rays of
light, should be as transparent and untarnished as possible, so as to
admit them as perfectly as can be practicable; instead of which, it is too
often disfigured by an accumulation and deposit of filth, which, to say
the least, must materially diminish their force: how important, moreover,
that whatever coverings it may be necessary to employ during the night to
prevent the outward radiation of heat, should be speedily removed in the
morning, and kept off as long as they safely may be, in order to permit
the inward radiation of light. When these matters are all duly attended
to, our climate, at least during the winter, still offers obstruction
enough to our success, in its mists, and fogs, its long dark nights, and
dismal cloudy days, and therefore wisdom would teach us, to avail
ourselves of all which we can grasp, by a course of untiring assiduity,
and attention to such apparently trifling matters as these.

The pruning and training of the plants, are operations, to which it will
be necessary to direct attention; and in the performance of which, the
circumstances which may have any influence upon them, as well as the
object in view, must be taken into consideration. The plants being
intended to occupy a surface of trellis-work in a line nearly parallel
with the glass, it will be requisite to train their primary shoots to a
sufficient length to reach from the soil to the trellis, before they are
what is technically called "stopped;" this operation, by removing the
central bud, or axis of developement, induces the buds which are latently
formed at the nodes of the branches, to push forth and become the axes of
further extension: two or three of the strongest of these lateral shoots
situated towards the top of the stem, should be retained, and trained on
the trellis in a direction towards the top of the house; these shoots
should be placed about 18 inches from each other, and when they have
reached about one-third of the length of the trellis, they also should be
stopped, and thus several more lateral shoots will be produced. The
uppermost strong shoot should in each case, be still trained in