16 



CUCURBITACE.E. IV. CUCUMIS. 



is chiefly carried on by artificial heat, and is therefore treated 

 of under that head. For pickling it is chiefly cultivated in the 

 open ground, by what is termed drilling. To have a crop in 

 the natural ground, the seed is sown in warm compartments of 

 rich earth, towards the end of May or beginning of June, when 

 the weather is settled, warm and dry. The plants should mostly 

 remain where sown, to produce late fruit towards the end of 

 July, or more generally in August and September ; small for 

 pickling, and in larger growth for ordinary consumption. Sow 

 a portion in a warm border, and the main crop in an open com- 

 partment. Dig the ground neatly even. Trace lines with in- 

 tervals of 5 or 6 feet ; and in the lines mark stations 3^ feet 

 distant, then with a trowel at each of these spots, form shallow 

 circular saucer-form cavities in the surface, 10 or 12 inches 

 wide and about an inch deep in the middle. Sow in the middle 

 of each cavity 8 or 10 seeds, half an inch deep. When the 

 plants are come up, and begin to put forth the first leaves in 

 the centre, thin them to 3 or 4 of the strongest in each hole. 

 Earth these up a little between and close round the stems, 

 pressing them a little asunder, and give them some water to 

 settle the earth below and above. In their advancing growth 

 train out the leading runners, supplying them with requisite 

 waterings in dry weather 2 or S times a-week, and sometimes 

 every day in very dry hot weather, in July, August, or Septem- 

 ber. At this season water early in the morning and late in the 

 afternoon towards evening." 



Gathering. " The crop comes in sometimes towards the end 

 of July, but more generally not before August in full produc- 

 tion ; continuing till about the middle or end of September, 

 when the plants decline. Be careful to gather the fruit in a 

 fine state both for pickling and other purposes. They must 

 be quite young for pickling, not exceeding 2 or 3 inches in 

 length." Abercrombie. 



Forcing cucumbers. To produce cucumbers at an early 

 season, is an object of emulation with every gardener ; and 

 there is scarcely any person who has not a cucumber-bed in his 

 garden. We shall lay down a systematic view of the practices 

 of the most approved gardeners in the culture of this plant, as 

 has been our usual custom with other garden plants. Cucum- 

 bers are forced in hot-beds, pits, and hot-houses, and the heat 

 of fire, and warm water, and steam, and dung, have been applied 

 to their culture ; but dung, as the author last quoted observes, 

 is the only thing yet found out, by the heat of which the cu- 

 cumber may be advantageously cultivated. 



Soil. Cucumbers, like every other plant, will grow in any 

 soil, though not with the same degree of vigour, provided they 

 be supplied with a sufficiency of heat, light, water, and air. 

 For early forcing, Abercrombie recommends a mould or com- 

 post of the following materials : " One third of rich top-spit 

 earth, from an upland pasture, one-third of vegetable mould, 

 and one-sixth of well decomposed horse-dung, with a small 

 quantity of sand." M'Phail used vegetable mould made from 

 a mixture (accidental) of the leaves of elm, lime, beech, syca- 

 more, horse and sweet chestnut, spruce, and Scotch fir, walnut, 

 laurel oak, evergreen oak, ash, &c. and among them withered 

 grass and weeds of various kinds. " This vegetable mould," 

 he says, " without a mixture of any thing besides, is what I 

 used for growing cucumbers in, and by experience I found it 

 preferable to any other moulds, earths, or composts whatever, 

 either in my new method of a brick bed, or in the old method 

 of a bed made of horse-dung." Nicolsays, " soil thus composed 

 will produce cucumbers in great abundance : three-fourths light 

 rich black earth from a pasture, an eighth part vegetable mould 

 of decayed tree-leaves, and an eightli part rotten cow-dung." 

 Kal. p. 393. W. T. Aiton gives the following as the compost 

 used in Kew Gardens : " Of light loam a few months from the 



common, one-third part, the best rotten dung one-third part, 

 leaf-mould and heath-earth of equal parts, making one-third 

 part. The whole well mixed for use." G. Mills states that the 

 soil he uses " is half-bog or black mould, got from a dry heathy 

 common, and half leaf-mould : after lying 12 months in a heap, 

 the compost is fit for use." 



Time of beginning to force. Abercrombie says, " Managers 

 who have to provide against demands for early cucumbers, 

 must raise the seedlings from 10-12 weeks before the fruit will 

 be required, according to the length of the days in the interval. 

 In proportion as the entire course embraces a greater part of 

 the mid-winter, the liability of failure from obstacles in the 

 weather will be greater. The last fortnight in January, or first 

 week in February, is a good time for beginning to force the most 

 early crop. In the subsequent months, both main and second- 

 ary crops may be started as required, and will come forward 

 more freely. To have a constant succession, seedlings should 

 be raised twice a month. As the course of forcing more coin- 

 cides with the natural growing season, the length of it will be 

 reduced to 8, 7, or 6 weeks." M'Phail says, " those who are 

 desirous of having cucumbers early, had best sow seeds about 

 the 20th of October ; they may be sown at any time of the 

 year, but the spring and autumn are the best seasons. Cucum- 

 ber plants may be made to bear fruit plentifully from about the 

 middle of March till the middle of September ; but from the 

 middle of September till the middle of March their produce 

 will be but scanty. Cucumber-plants, raised from seed in Oc- 

 tober, will begin to produce fruit in February or March, and 

 will continue to bear till the following month of October, pro- 

 vided they be kept in frames and get plenty of heat and water." 

 Nicol recommends the middle of January. He says " Some begin 

 sooner, but it is striving hard against the stream to little pur- 

 pose. If the dung be prepared and the bed be got ready, so as to 

 sow about the first of February, the success will often be greater 

 than by sowing a month earlier, the growth of the plants being 

 frequently checked by bad weather, and sometimes they are 

 entirely lost." Aiton, in the paper above quoted, sowed on the 

 12th and 20th of August, with a view to cultivate in stoves, a 

 regular supply of this vegetable being annually required for 

 the royal tables. G. Mills sows on the first of October. 



Sorts. Abercrombie recommends the short prickly for very 

 early fruit, and the long prickly kinds for the chief early and 

 main summer crops. Nicol says every gardener has his favour- 

 ite sort of cucumber, and it is no easy matter to advise. He 

 names as early sorts generally known, the early short prickly as 

 the earliest ; the early smooth green, a long fruit, the long green 

 prickly, and the white prickly, a white fruit. 



Choice of seed. " It is advisable," Abercrombie observes, 

 " to have that at least from 2-4 years old, in preference to newer 

 seed, which is more apt to run luxuriantly in vine, and the plants 

 from it do not show fruit so soon or so abundantly as those from 

 seed of greater age. But when seed has been kept more than 

 4 years, it is sometimes found to be too much weakened." 



Forming the seed-bed. " A one-light frame," Abercrombie 

 says, " will be large enough for ordinary purposes. Choose a dry 

 sheltered part of the melon-ground, and form a bed for a 1- 

 light frame. When high winds are suffered to blow against a 

 cucumber-bed, they have a very powerful effect on it, for in 

 that case the heat will not only be greatly abated, but also forced 

 and driven into the corners of the frames, and, consequently, 

 some parts thereof are rendered too cold, whilst other parts are 

 made too hot, and of course the plants are all equally endangered, 

 retarded in their growth, and perhaps some, if not all of them, i 

 totally destroyed. Therefore, when a cucumber-bed is about I 

 to be built, the first object of consideration should be, to 

 have it, as well as possible, sheltered from the high winds and 



