292 VEGETABLE GARDENING 



land plaster, or some other dust, to keep off the striped 

 beetles, which are often very troublesome and may destroy 

 the plants when they are small unless preventive measures 

 are used. (See chapter on insects.) The land should be 

 cultivated both ways until the vines prevent it, so that very 

 little work will have to be done by hand. About three good 

 plants are enough for each hill, and the rest should be 

 removed after the danger from serious insect injuries has 

 passed. 



Gathering the Crop. If for table use or for marketing 

 in a green state, the cucumbers are gathered when full 

 grown but still green; if for pickles, the cucumbers are 

 gathered as soon as of the required size, which is generally 

 when they are about three inches long. Some factories put 

 up larger and some smaller pickles than this size. To 

 gather them of just the right size requires that the whole 

 bed be picked over about once in two days. This is a mat- 

 ter of much labor and is generally paid for by the piece. 



No cucumbers should be allowed to go to seed if pickles 

 or table cucumbers are wanted, for as soon asseedis ripened 

 the plants commence to die off ; while if constantly gathered 

 when green and not allowed to ripen, the plants will con- 

 tinue bearing a long time. In the vicinity of pickling fac- 

 tories, cucumbers for pickles are often raised in large 

 quantities as a farm crop and are contracted for at a speci- 

 fied price per thousand or per hundred pounds, for the 

 season. 



For home use or for storing and marketing in the winter, 

 the cucumbers are packed in salt or salt brine when gath- 

 ered. Growers generally use about seven pounds of salt to 

 a bushel of cucumbers. They may also be packed in dry 

 salt in layers, which has the effect of taking the water out of 

 the cucumbers, causing them to shrivel up and lie in their 



