stewarding cucumbers
In the facsimile edition I have of the 18th century vegetable manual Adam's Luxury and Eve's Cookery a good eight pages are devoted to the cultivation of cucumbers, more than the notoriously difficult to grow asparagus and much more than the half or three-quarter page that most plants receive; most of this instruction involves first giving them plenty of heat through the clever use of fermenting manure and glass frames and then ensuring that the hot and humid plants get enough air. Here is a sample:
Always take Care to give your Air on the contrary Side to the Wind, and if the Air is very cold, let the Matt hang down over the Place where you admit the Air, which passing through that will help to soften it; and observe to cover the Glasses every Night with Mats, and every Morning to turn your Glass the wrong Side upwards, and wipe off the Moisture, which otherwise would drop upon the Plants and spoil them.
