476 



THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST. 



fourth rows first, that is cut and tie up as 

 I go along; then I come back on the first 

 and second and any heads that I cut I drop 



in the row I did first. The fifth and sixth 

 rows are treated in the same way. I leave 

 the twine on till I trim them in the barn." 



GROWING CUCUMBERS FOR EARLY MARKETS 



J. L. IIILBORN, LEAMINGTON, ONT. 



OUR soil is well adapted for growing a 

 few varieties of vegetables. Most 

 of you, I suppose, grow for the local mar- 

 ket. Ours are entirely for shipping; we 

 do not try to sell anything in town. Every- 

 thing goes by express and the express com- 

 pany gets every year $1,300 to $1,400 from 

 us. We grow cucumbers, melons and to- 

 matoes chiefly. I will start with early cu- 

 cumbers. 



It would be useless to attempt the kind of 

 business we are doing without some form 

 of greenhouse to start with. We start all 

 our plants in some kind of greenhouse. 

 There are some 40 greenhouses within two 

 miles from my place. New ones are being 

 built every year, and these houses are used 

 for starting plants to be moved outside. 

 Tomatoes are grown in some of them. We 

 start to grow our plants about the first or 

 second week in March. 



The chairman : " \\'hat variety do you 

 grow ?" 



Answer : " We have been growing two 

 varieties, the White Spine chiefly, and Ar- 

 lington. I would prefer something of the 

 same nature with a deeper brighter green. 

 Bervey's Extra Early White Spine is an 

 early variety and of fairly good size. 



" The seeds are started in flats, and when 

 the third leaf is on we transplant them into 

 other flats. We use a flat two feet long 

 and one foot wide and about three to four 

 inches deep. Formerly we used a much 

 deeper flat, but we have found that using 

 less soil is better. The way we discovered 

 this was. that my little boy made some boxes 

 two inches deep and picked out some of the 



cull plants and set them out in these boxes 

 and every one of his plants beat ours. He 

 used just about an inch and a half of soil 

 and he got more stalky plants. After he 

 had been doing this for three or four years 

 we began doing it and we found that we got 

 a much better rooted and more stalky plant, 

 and we cut all our trays down. That goes 

 to show that we may learn from people 

 whom we think know much less than we do. 



" What I say about cucumbers will apply 

 to all the plants that we grow. We use the 

 same plan for transplanting. We trans- 

 plant the cucumbers in rows, using a stick, 

 something like the head of a wooden rake, 

 in which I have fingers. I make the holes 

 with that." 



Question : " A\'hat distance apart is it 

 best to have the plants?" 



Answer : " The first time put them two 

 by three. With the cucumbers, when they 

 begin to crowd, we put them into larger 

 beds and boxes. I would rather transplant 

 them twice if I had time. The oftener you 

 transplant them the better root you get. 

 You can get a thick, stalky, clump of roots 

 and a more stalky plant and one that will re- 

 sist checking very much better by trans- 

 planting two or three times. 



" The man behind the hose has a wonder- 

 ful lot to do with the plants. I like to let 

 my plants dry out pretty w^ell before I water 

 them and then give them a good wetting and 

 allow them to thoroughly dry again before 

 watering them. Watering too often makes 

 a soft plant that will not stand transplant- 

 mg. 



Question : " What object do you aim at 



* Extract from an addre-;'. delivered at the first annual convention of the Ontario Vegetable Growers' .Association, held in Toronto at 

 the time of the Ontario Hurticultural Exhibition. 



