Vegetable Growing for Market 101 



Another Celery pest is the Celery Stem Fly (Piophila Apii). The 

 grubs of this tunnel down the blanched stalks and make rusty tracks. 

 These not only disfigure the stems and render them more or less unsaleable, 

 but very often also cause them to rot. 



The best remedy for this pest is to till the ground deeply and keep 

 it clean and free from weeds, and to give a good dressing of lime or soot as 

 soon after planting as possible. [j. w.] 



13. CUCUMBERS 



The Cucumber (Cucumis sativus) is an East Indian annual, having 

 roughish, trailing, angular fleshy stems bearing large angular and heart- 

 shaped coarsely toothed leaves, roughish to the touch like the stems, 

 each one being borne alternately and opposite a succulent tendril. The 

 yellow short -stalked flowers are borne in the axils of the leaves, but 

 male and female flowers are quite separate and distinct from each other. 

 The Cucumber is therefore monoecious, like its first cousins the Vegetable 

 Marrow and the Melon. The female flowers are easily recognized by 

 the swollen ovary at the base, which eventually develops into the well- 

 known, oblong, cylindrical fruit. The development of this is not dependent 

 upon fertilization, as in the Melon, and many growers therefore pick off 

 all the male or staminate flowers, as they are only a hindrance to the 

 formation of the fruit. If, however, it is desirable to obtain seeds, it is 

 essential to retain the male flowers and transfer the pollen from them 

 when ripe to the stigmas in the female blossoms, and thus secure fertiliza- 

 tion. Indeed the production of good Cucumber seed is an industry in 

 itself, and many growers devote almost their whole time to it. 



The great aim, however, of Cucumber growers generally is to produce 

 large supplies of fruit for the markets every year. Extensive ranges of 

 glasshouses have been erected around the metropolis (at Enfield, Edmon- 

 ton, Ponders End, Waltham Cross, &c.) and many large provincial towns 

 expressly for Cucumber growing, and there are thousands of tons of fruit 

 produced now where years ago there were only hundredweights. The 

 span-roofed style of house is most favoured, and the length may be any- 

 thing from 100 to 300 ft. long, while the width may be only 10 to 12 ft. 

 An excellent and convenient size is about 200 ft. long by 13 ft. wide. 

 Where, however, Cucumbers are grown as a "catch crop", as they often 

 are during the summer months, any kind f glass structure with sufficient 

 heating apparatus is utilized for the purpose. 



Being practically a tropical plant, the Cucumber requires plenty of 

 heat. Being also of a very fleshy succulent nature, and of quick growth, 

 it must also have an abundance of moisture. But when the expressions 

 "plenty of heat" and "abundance of moisture" are used in a horticultural 

 sense they must not be literally understood to mean that there is to be 

 no limit to either a high temperature on the one hand or to a supply of 



