498 CULTURE OF THE CUCUMBER. 



light, will cause new shoots to be produced. Mildew may always be 

 checked by powdering with flowers of sulphur. 



The red spider can be best fought with a moist atmosphere and a 

 vigorous unchecked growth. 



Culture of the Cucumber. 



The cucumber (Cucumis sativa, L.) is an annual, climbing by 

 tendrils, or trailing on the surface of the ground, a native of the East 

 Indies, and probably of many parts of Asia and Africa. It has been 

 cultivated in the old world from time immemorial for its fruit, which 

 is used in an unripe state, alone, or in salads, and for salting and 

 pickling. The cucumber will bear a tropical heat, for it grows 

 abundantly in many tropical countries. In the lower regions of India, 

 the mean annual temperature may be reckoned as high as 80 ; the 

 thermometer seldom sinking below 70 in the hottest period of the 

 season. The cucumber thrives well where the heat of the nights is 

 more oppressively felt by Europeans than that of the days. As a wide 

 difference does not occur in the diurnal and nocturnal temperatures 

 of tropical countries, where the cucumber grows spontaneously, it is 

 not necessary that a great variation should, in this respect, be im- 

 posed upon it when under artificial treatment. In order to be tender 

 when cut for use, it requires to be grown rapidly, and, therefore, re- 

 quires as much heat and moisture as can be safely applied. If the 

 native plants of colder climates are forced night and day in a uniformly 

 high temperature, a drawing, or weakness, soon becomes evident ; but 

 no such signs are exhibited by the rigid leaves of the pine-apple, 

 although grown in a uniform temperature of 80, provided they have 

 not less than eleven or twelve hours' light out of the twenty-four. The 

 cucumber will grow side by side with the pine-apple; and also 

 naturally in a much higher latitude ; but in that case its growth is 

 limited to the summer season, when nearly a tropical heat is main- 

 tained. If the nights are cold, although the days may be warm, cu- 

 cumbers growing on ridges in the open air, in this climate, invariably 

 become diseased and attacked by mildew. A temperature ranging 

 between 70 and 80 of artificial heat is suitable for the growth ot the 

 cucumber ; if sun-heat is likely to raise the temperature much higher, 

 air should be copiously, yet gradually, afforded ; and presuming that 

 the plants are in good health, and their roots well established, enough 

 of moisture being present, they will bear from 90 to 110 of sun-heat 

 without injury. 



In cultivating the cucumber in British gardens, the object is to 

 have a supply of fruit throughout the year. This may be effected in 

 dung-beds, but more conveniently by some description of pit heated 

 by flues or hot-water, or by a house constructed on purpose, with a 

 steep glass roof. The plants may be raised either from seeds or 

 cuttings. The soil cucumbers prefer is light and rich, but they will 

 grow in poor soil watered with liquid manure. Sandy-peat has been 

 found suitable for dung-beds in the winter season, because water 

 passes rapidly through this soil, without so much being retained by it, 



