QUERIES AND ANSWERS. 5 



We here record our protest against the expression "Irish potatoes" as 

 applied to any of the many forms of round or kidney potatoes, the plant 

 being a native American, found growing wild from Arizona to Chili, 



New varieties of potatoes are alone derived from the true seed, which is 

 obtained from the seed balls ; these seed balls are generally borne upon 

 late varieties. The development of new varieties of valuable qualities is 

 tiresome and disappointing, as often ten years of labor may not bring a 

 single truly valuable sort. It is, however, a matter of chance, and the 

 first experiment may develop a novelty of the highest merit. 



24. Q. What is the product of cucumbers? Cucumbers. 

 A. For early use plant in hills 4x4 feet, on a warm border, when the 



cherry is in bloom, and for a succession sow in drills at five feet, when the 

 apple is in bloom. For pickles plant middle of Summer. 



In Florida and other Southern States, a fair average production per 

 acre of slicing cucumbers is two hundred crates, 8x14 x 20 inches. Some 

 growers claim average crops of 400 and 500 — even 800 crates have been 

 recorded, but these large yields are only occasionally heard of. 



Fresh Southern cucumbers appear in Philadelphia the last of November, 

 and command $1 to $3 per dozen. Towards Christmas the price rises to 

 $2.50 per dozen, after which the price declines to $4 or $5 per box of 

 eighty-five to ninety fruit. By last of May the price goes down to $1 

 per dozen, after which shipments are unprofitable. As a rule the early 

 cucumbers from New Orleans bring better prices than those from Florida, 

 being better sorted and better packed. 



A good crop of cucumbers, when gathered of pickling size, produces 

 from 100 to 175 bushels to the acre. A bushel contains about 300 

 pickles. Some cultivators have claimed to produce over 100,000 pickles 

 to the acre. The pickles should be slipped from the vine by the thumb 

 and finger without raising or disturbing the vine. The pickle houses 

 generally pay the farmers forty to fifty cents per bushel, they in turn sell 

 them at from twenty to thirty cents per 100. 



Pickles properly prepared will keep five or six years. The method of 

 salting pickles, as pursued in New Jersey, is as follows : To a cask of 120 

 gallons capacity, take four quarts of salt and mix in two gallons of water. 

 Place the solution in the bottom of the cask and put in the green pickles 

 after washing. To each two bushels of pickles put into the cask add four 

 quarts of Salt, and continue until cask is full. Place the head of the cask, 

 with edges trimmed off to permit of a rise and fall, on the top of the 

 pickles, and on the top of the head or lid place a weight of twenty or 

 twenty -five pounds. If there should be any leakage of the liquor, replace 

 it by a solution of four quarts of salt to two gallons of water, keeping all 

 the pickles submerged. Salt should not be stinted. Pickle packers make 

 three sizes before pickling — large, medium and small. 



25. Q. What is the form of a Long Green Turkey cucumber? Turkey 



A. A Long Green Turkey cucumber is long, three square and at the stem Cw«»i"»'*«"' 

 end of a reduced diameter, the seed being found principally in the blossom 



