FARMERS' INSTITUTES. 65 



not cut with a knife or shears, as people generally believe. This greatly 

 facilitates the picking and relieves the picker of much unnecessary labor. 

 When the vines are bearing well a good picker can gather ten bushels of 

 cucumbers in a day. In some cases ihe 'quantity has reached twenty-five 

 bushels, but this is the exception and not the rule. Usually it is neces- 

 sary to pick a patch every other day and as a picker can do about half an 

 acre in one day, each acre pUinted to cucumbers will give steady emploj'- 

 ment to one person during the picking season. During warm weather 

 when the yield is heaviest it is sometimes necessary to pick over a patch 

 every day. Cucumbers are harvested during the months of August and 

 September, the season lasting from five to six weeks, but the first severe 

 frost will bring it to a close. There is little risk in raising this crop as the 

 labor up to the time of harvesting is very slight. The labor required is at 

 a time when general farm crops interfere the least and the same labor 

 can be utilized in the tending of sugar beets, previous to the time of har- 

 vesting the cucumbers, and in topping and pulling the crop, after the 

 frost has killed the cucumber vines. 



For controlling the beetle some cucumber raisers recommend a number 

 of remedies. One of these is air-slaked lime; another a mixture o* two- 

 thirds lime and one-third land plaster; a third is a mixture of a hundred 

 pounds of land plaster and two pounds of sulphur; a fourth, tobacco dust 

 s])rinkled with carbolic acid; a fifth is a spoonful of asafetida dissolved 

 in alcohol in ten quarts of water. There is no doubt that these remedies 

 are worthy this name, but practically the solution of the insect problem 

 lies in late planting and an abundaijce of seed. 



Every farmer will find it to his interest to plant two or three acres of 

 cucunjbers, which will bring him a steady income during the season when 

 he is realizing no profits from his other crops; a crop which responsible 

 children can look after as well as a grown person and the labor upon 

 which must be done at a time when he can best attend to it. The cucum- 

 ber industry has succeeded in most states of the Union, but in no states has 

 it done better than in Michigan. It is not an uncommon occurrence for a 

 man to market one hundred dollars' worth of cucumbers to the acre, while 

 the average returns have been not far from fifty dollars. If you but try 

 this industry, I assure you you will profit by the exjieriment and you will 

 wish to increase your acreage another season. 

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