6 



QUERIES AND ANSWERS, 



Pickles. 



Cucumber 

 Bug. 



White Spine 

 Cucuuiber. 



Slicing. 

 Fruiting. 



Cucumber 

 Crops. 



Greeniiouse 

 Cucunxber. 



end. In an ordinary "Long Green" the diameter is about the same 

 throughout its length, and the seed found throughout a larger portion of 

 the fruit. The Long Green Turkey is a light producer of seed, and conse- 

 quently the seed is higher priced than other field varieties. 



26. Q. "Which variety of cucumber will produce the most small fruits 

 for pickling ? 



A. The Short Prolific and the Jersey pickle for commercial sales, but 

 for domestic use the Long Green Turkey furnishes the best formed pickles. 



27. Q. How shall I secure myself against the attacks of the cucumber 

 or squash bug? 



A. Start the plants in the house or under glass, the seeds planted in 

 square pieces of sod for readiness of removal to the field when the leaves 

 become half developed. 



28. Q. What is a good White Spine cucumber ? 



A. It is a leading sort both in the private and market garden, appreci- 

 ated by reason of its strong healthy habit of vine and consequent produc- 

 tiveness, of deep green symmetrical fruit. If of a good strain the fruits are 

 in length four or five times their diameter, and nearly of the same diameter 

 throughout their entire length, slightly three-sided and dotted with small 

 warts, from each of which springs an ivory-white thorn or spine, giving 

 the name of White Spine to the variety. With a few exceptions other 

 cucumbers bear brown or black spines. 



From the extreme or blossom end of the white spine ten light-colored 

 lines run towards the stem end, these lines as the fruit becomes larger turn 

 bone white, sometimes a yellow white, and after the fruit becomes too old 

 for shipment the entire fruit becomes a bone white, tinged with a light 

 golden. . 



As a shipping variety the White Spine is highly prized, as it so long 

 retains its green color, which, when it does change, alters not to a yellow, 

 but to a less objectionable white. 



29. Q. Which varieties of cucumber are the best for slicing? 

 A. White Spine, Early Frame and Long Green. 



30. Q. Why do some varieties of cucumbers produce more fruit than 

 others ? 



A. Because of a more perfect formation of flowers, and a more profuse 

 distribution of pollen. 



31. Q. Why do vine crops as cucumber and melons produce larger 

 crops after a dry summer than after a wet one ? 



A. Because during the flowering period throughout a dry summer the 

 pollen is freely carried from the male flowers by winds and insects to the 

 female flowers, but during a wet season the pollen being made heavy by 

 moisture it remains on the male flowers where it originates. 



•82. Q. In what way do English hothouse cucumbers diflfer from the 

 usual American outdoor sorts ? 



A. The forcing-house varieties, as Rabley, Marquis of Lome, Telegraph, 

 are all more than twice as long as the longest field varieties, sometimes 



