294 VEGETABLE GARDENING 



bers will not need much room for several weeks, which will 

 give time to grow the early crop and get it out of the way 

 of the cucumbers. The sashes should be removed when 

 warm weather comes, and the vines allowed to grow in 

 the frames all summer. 



Yields. Cucumbers yield from one hundred to four 

 hundred or more bushels per acre, depending on care, soil, 

 etc. They are sold by the dozen, the bushel, or by weight, 

 bringing from twenty-five cents apiece to twenty-five or 

 fifty cents per bushel, depending on the supply. A good 

 field ought to return from $200 to $300 an acre for slicing 

 cucumbers. Yields of picklers vary from three to nine tons 

 per acre, and bring from $12 to $15 per ton. 



Insects. The cucumber has a serious enemy in the 

 striped beetle and is also liable to injury from the cut- worm. 

 (For remedies see chapter on insects.) 



Seed. Cucumber seed is easily raised, and in some 

 localities it is a product of some importance. In raising 

 seed it is important to save it from the early fruit, which in 

 a small way is easily saved ; on a large scale, however, the 

 fruits are allowed to ripen but not to rot on the ground. 

 When the vines are dead, the ripe cucumbers are split open, 

 the pulp scooped out with the seed and allowed to ferment 

 for a few days, when it readily separates from the seed. 

 The whole mass is then thrown into a sieve with a mesh 

 small enough to retain the seeds as the pulp is washed 

 through, leaving the clean seed, which is carefully dried. 

 If the cucumbers are allowed to get rotten before the seed 

 is taken out, the skins will become mixed with the seed, 

 and the seed will be discolored, and such seed is very 

 liable to sprout in the cleaning and curing process. 



Varieties. For general home use and marketing, the 

 White Spine is a favorite variety. For pickles, the most 



