May C, 1869. ] 



JOUBNAIi OF HOBTIODLTDflB AND OOTTAGB GABDENER. 



303 



CUCUMBERS.— RIDGE-CULTURE. 



) S the time is fast approaching for the cultiva- 

 tion of the Cucumber on ridges, a few remarks 

 on its treatment in tho open air wUl, I hope, 

 be acceptable, and produce beneficial results ; 

 for though its culture is common enough 

 among professional gardeners, amateurs, and 

 cottagers, I am far from being convinced that 

 it is so well understood by all as to leave 

 nothing worthy of a special paper on the 

 subject. 



From what I have observed I shall not be far wrong if 

 I say that two nearly distinct systems of treatment are 

 pursued ; the one by the gardener, which the amateur in 

 nine cases out of ten can and does follow, and the other is 

 that of the cottager or labourer. Now, let me notice some 

 of the principal features of the two systems, not only to 

 glean satisfactory evidence as to the most proper and cer- 

 tain mode of culture, but also to see if we cannot b«^ttor 

 inform ourselves as to the cause of that terrible disease 

 (if disease it is), which for some years past has come upon 

 the Cucumber with the suddenness of an electric shock. 



The gardener may be said to possess unUmited con- 

 veniences for raising and growing his plants under glass, 

 for hardening-oir, and for finally planting-out ; he can 

 command plenty of manure and rich soil, with which to 

 form ridges, also the protection of hand-lights to lessen the 

 chock Ids plants receive and to hasten maturity. Under 

 his mode of air-giving, shading, and watering, the plants 

 soon attain proportions quite surprising. The hand-lights, 

 from becoming too small, are set on bricks until the plants 

 are strong enough to take care of themselves, when the 

 lights are taken away and the plants left to the mercy of 

 the elements. After this, mere attention to watering, and 

 occasionally stopping a gross shoot, complete the gardener's 

 system of open-air Cucumber culture. 



Now, let mo turn to the cottager or farm servant, whose 

 system everj' one knows must be regulated according to 

 circumstances, and whose means are so limited as to com- 

 pel him to do without the gardener's conveniences, with 

 a few exceptions as to manure, whicli I shall presently 

 explain. About the beginning of April he thinks of his 

 Cucumber bed, and collects into a heap such materials as 

 roadside grass, weeds from his garden, horse droppings, 

 wood ashes, &c., and he turns them over several times to 

 decay. About the middle of May in some sunny spot a 

 hole is dug large enough for his requirements, and this 

 heap of decayed matter is pitched into it, covered with a 

 layer of the soil that came out of the hole, and the other 

 portion is laid round it in the form of a ridge. The bed 

 then has the appearance of a dish. The seeds are sown in 

 patches of six or seven, and green boughs are laid across 

 from ridge to ridge to shade the seeds by day and protect 

 them at night. An old tub is tiUed with water, and placed 

 in the sun to warm, and after the plants have made their 

 third leaf they are daily supplied with water from tliis, 

 except in very wet weather. As the plants grow, the soil 

 round the bed is used as a mulching to encourage the 

 No. 423.— Vol.. XVI., kew Seeteb. 



surface roots. Tlie exceptions before alluded to are these : 

 In different parts of the countiy, and especially in Kent 

 and Sussex, it was at one time usual for farmers to hire 

 their men servants at so much per year and a Cucumber 

 bed, and the Cucumber being a saleable commodity in 

 these localities, tliis offer was considered too good to be 

 rejected. The men, therefore, have the use of a heap of 

 farmyard manure amounting sometimes to as much as 

 fifty or a hundred cartloads; this is spread out to the 

 thickness of 5 or (i feet, which, I am told, makes a bed 

 large enough to grow from fifty to sixty dozen Cucumbers. 

 All other particidars as to culture are tho same as with 

 the cottager. 



Having been called upon some time back to grow Cu- 

 cumbers extensively on ridges, I tried both systems with 

 results so convincing as to decide me without hesitation in 

 favour of the cottagers' plan, and for these reasons : — It is 

 purely open-air culture from first to last ; his plants are 

 raised and grown on the spot where they are to fruit, and 

 not having a rich soil, their growth is of that hardy nature 

 that changes of temperature are not so injurious to them 

 as to those more tenderly reared. On the other hand, the 

 gardener's open-air culture does not begin until the hand- 

 lights come off, when tho Cucumber vines and foliage, 

 owing to his liberal treatment, are vigorous and tender, 

 therefore more liable to injui-y. The next reason, from 

 the very nature of things, is the most important, and 

 though i think the adoption of the practice has been forced 

 upon tiie cottager more from necessity than from knowledge 

 of its importance, in this practice, according to my opinion, 

 lies the whole secret of success in out-door Cucumber cul- 

 ture. The cottager makes liis bed under ground, and so 

 provides for the roots an unlimited space in which they can 

 ramble in search of food, besides securing for them a moist, 

 warm, and regular temperature ; liis beds, too, not unfre- 

 quently continue in bearing until autumn. We gardeners, 

 on the contrary, make provision for the roots above ground, 

 and although we know, or ought to know, that the roots of 

 the Cucumber ramble far, we confine them to a narrow 

 ridge, which, besides being subject to climatic influences, is 

 soon pierced by the roots in evciy ilirection ; the supply of 

 food is then suddenly cut short in consequence of the want 

 of space in which to collect it, and the first powerful sun- 

 shine prostrates the finest foliage. Tliis is what some call 

 a disease, but I fail to see it in that light when another 

 bed growing alongside on the cottagers' plan is entirely 

 free from these appearances, yet such has been my expe- 

 rience. I am, therefore, inclined to think the gardener's 

 treatment is too liberal, and that it is better to provide a 

 commoner but more substantial diet, and pursue a more 

 legitimate system of open-air culture. The result. I think, 

 would be early in autumn a healthy Cucumber bed, which 

 is seldom seen, except in a cottager's garden. Of course I 

 am aware that it is not in every county that purely open-air 

 cidture .^an be practised, but at all events it is in everyone's 

 power to give the plants a less rich soil and encourage root- 

 extension, for here is where I think the prmcipal cause OJ' 

 the failure lies. 



There is one plea which gardeners may put forward in 

 No.1075.— Vol. XX,!., Old Series. 



