390 XEW JEESEY AGEICULTUEAL COLLEGE 



"The statistics sIiota* that, while in 1885 onlv 910 acres were de- 

 voted to cucumbers in the neighborhood of Znaim, in 1895 there were 

 full}' 2,000 acres of the vegetable. The yield in 1885 was more than 

 150,000,000 cucumbers, while in 1895 it reached the maximum pro- 

 duction of over 336,000,000. In the last ten years the acreage has 

 more than doubled. The average annual yield per acre has been about 

 165,000 cucumbers." 



The "Znaim" cucumbers were gro"WTi upon the Experiment Area in 

 1901, and from seed thus secured plants were obtained for the cross- 

 ing in the greenhouse. The field-grown "Znaim" cucumbers were 

 short and broad when ripe, perhaps half the length of a "White Spine," 

 with a rough skin that was a dull yellow in color. 



The "Telegraph" is perhaps the most popular indoor cucumber, and 

 is remarkable for its length, seedlessness and firmness of tissue. Some- 

 times they are two or more feet in length; two inches in diameter. 



One of the points in mind was to obtain a field cucumber of good 

 size, with a superior flesh and a tendency to produce few seeds. Plate 

 V. shows two average fruits much reduced in size. The texture of this 

 crossed fruit is good, the shape is desirable and there are but few seeds.- 

 As in the "Telegraph," there are sometimes constrictions in the fruit 

 where there are no seeds. It, of course, remains to determine whether 

 the form will hold and the seediness prove acceptable. 



Plot IV., Series II., was devoted to "White Spine"— "White Pearl" 

 cucumbers, descending from the crosses of 1899. Seeds from several 

 of the most striking variations of the previous season were sown, and, 

 in the resulting crop, there seemed to be much less variation as to size 

 and shape of fruits than in 1901. A majority of this years fruits were 

 smaller than the "W^hite Spine" and larger than the "White Pearl." 

 The plants from one of the selections of 1901 yielded fruits rather 

 larger than the "Wliite Spine." 



In color, the crop, on the whole, seemed to show the influence of 

 both parents, and in all the fruits examined there was the usual num- 

 ber of sound seeds. Xone of the fruits were spineless. 



Cucumber Blight. — This season's plants became seriously infested 

 with the cucumber mildew, but not until the fruits had begun to ripen^ 



