ed every two or three weeks. If the same bed is used for
the new crops, liquid manure, with a little dissolved soda nitrate, will
be helpful.

If a night temperature of sixty degrees can be assured in part of the
house, tomatoes and cucumbers may also be had all winter. If the house
is only a general purpose one, held at a lower temperature than that,
they may still be had months before the crop outside by starting them so
as to follow the last crop of lettuce, which should be out of the way
by the first of April. The seeds of either need a high temperature to
germinate well, and may be started on the return heating pipes, care
being taken to remove them before they are injured by too much shade or
by drying out. In sowing the cucumber seed, pots or small boxes, filled
about half-full of a light sandy compost, may be used, these to be
filled in, leaving only two plants in each, as the plants get large
enough, with a rich compost. If there is a solid bed available, a trench
filled with horse manure, well packed in, will act as a hotbed and help
out the temperature required for rapid growth. If fruits are wanted for
the winter, the tomatoes should be started in July and the cucumbers
early in August. They should be given a very rich and sandy soil, and
the day temperature may run up to eighty degrees. Until the latter part
of spring, when the ventilators are opened and bees have ready access,
it is necessary to use artificial fertilization in order to get the
fruit to set. With a small soft brush, dust the pollen over the pistils.
With the English forcing cucumbers, this will not be necessary. While
fruit is setting, the houses should be kept especially dry and warm.

The vines of both tomatoes and cucumbers will have to be tied up to
stakes or wires with raffia. They should be pinched off at about six
feet, and, for the best fruit, all suckers kept off the tomatoes.

The best varieties of tomatoes for forcing are Lorillard, Stirling
Castle and Comet; of the cucumbers, Arlington White Spine, Davis
Perfected and the English forcing varieties.

If you do not like to stop having lettuce in time to give up space to
cucumbers or tomatoes, start some plants about January first, and have a
hotbed ready to receive them from the flats before March first. With a
little care as to ventilation and watering, they will come along just
after the last of the greenhouse crops.

A point not to be overlooked in connection with all the a