COPVRIGHT, 1898, BV 



rUORISTS' PUBUISnirSG CO., 520-335 Caxton Building, CI1ICAGO. 



Vol. n. 



CHICAGO AND NEW YORK, JULY H, 1898. 



No. 33. 



"WE ARE ALSO TRUCKERS." 



Although not floriculture or orna- 

 mental horticulture, the forcing of cu- 

 cumbers is interesting and sometimes 

 prolltabie. My excuse for asking the 

 editor to illustrate a very small sec- 

 tion of a house grown this spring is 

 that it was a crop used to fill up a 



flats and were stunted beyond recov- 

 ery, so after a very meagre picking 

 during fall and Christmas the violets 

 were thrown out, the beds dug and 

 manured and planted with lettuce. By 

 middle of April two crops of lettuce 

 had been cut. A number of tomato 

 plants had previously been planted in 

 boxes 9 inches square and 6 inches 



" We Are Also Truckers.' 



few months between crops and assur- 

 edly paid more than cost of labor and 

 fuel. The house is 125 feet long, 20 

 feet wide, all solid beds and two nar- 

 row paths. It was built to grow vio- 

 lets but like many another house it 

 was finished too late and it was the 

 end of August before the violets were 

 planted. They had been too long in 



deep; they began to ripen fruit mid- 

 dle of May and when removed from 

 the house about the 20th of June to 

 prepare for violets were loaded with 

 fruit soon to ripen. They were not de- 

 stroyed as the boxes were carried out 

 and the vines laid on the grass, and 

 many have since ripened. In a latitude 

 where you get few ripe tomatoes be- 



fore August 1st the trouble Incurred 

 pays. 



The seeds of the cucumbers were 

 sown about February 1st, grown in 4- 

 inch pots till they were a foot high 

 and then planted (towards end of 

 March), 3 feet apart at each side of 

 the house. One side was Telegraph, 

 the other a variety originating in this 

 locality, a cross between Telegraph 

 and Wh' i Spine, very prolific and of 

 medium length. The house is heated 

 with three 2-inch hot water pipes on 

 each side, and they are situated just 

 where I think they should be for vio- 

 lets, viz. on the side walls between top 

 of bench and glass and sufficiently 

 above the violets to be of no danger 

 as red spider producers. Sis 2-inch hot 

 water pipes in a house 20 feet wide 

 would be of course very inadequate to 

 keep up a tomato or cucumber tem- 

 perature in cold weather, but for vio- 

 lets it was ample. The cucumbers were 

 trained to wires running from upper 

 2-inch heating pipe to 1-inch purlin 

 pipe, running along roof about seven 

 feet from heating pipe. 



It is many years since I have seen 

 a house of cucumbers but never, I 

 think, have I seen them hang quite so 

 thickly. About June 10 I fully intend- 

 ed to have a good photograph of them 

 taken but alas, one night, and when 

 many hundred pounds weight of cu- 

 cumbers was hanging from the vines 

 the weight pulled the 2-inch pipe clean 

 off the supporting brackets and re- 

 moved most of the plants. One end 

 was little damaged and before throw- 

 ing them out, a neighbor who owned a 

 kodak stepped in and took a shot, and 

 from that the very imperfect illustra- 

 tion is taken. The Telegraph were 

 many of them 2.5 inches long, but the 

 average would be 18 inches. 



Mr. George Fancourt, who saw them 

 a month before they were thrown out. 

 pronounced them a very excellent 

 strain of Telegraph and Mr. F. is an 



