140 AMERICAN HOME GARDEN. 



raised for pickles, rather longer than the cluster, and of about 

 the same quality, but not so profuse a bearer. 



The white- spined long green supplies a desideratum among 

 cultivators, being of very handsome form and deep green col- 

 or, free from bitterness, and an abundant bearer. It is some- 

 times called simply the white-spined cucumber, but its varie- 

 ties are increasing, and are easily distinguishable. Its quality 

 can not be fairly judged of by those purchased in our markets, 

 as it may be cut too late or kept for a week without materially 

 changing its color. 



The early frame is of no particular variety, but the name 

 covers a number of slightly differing sub-varieties, which are 

 used for planting in frames in winter for the production of cu- 

 cumbers at unseasonable times. 



The extra long is, on various accounts, not worth cultivation. 

 Very long cucumbers are more solid in texture than is desira- 

 ble, and the stem end is generally bitter for two or three inches. 

 If the peeling be performed from that end, the bitterness is 

 more or less communicated to the whole, and hence probably 

 the old rule, always to peel a cucumber from the blossom end. 

 They are also, in general, poor bearers ; but their fine appear- 

 ance, either for pickles or the table, has given them considera- 

 ble favor in certain quarters. 



The " white Turkey" is a curious but valueless variety. 



Small cucumbers of any kind, when pickled, are properly 

 called " gherkins," but this name has been also given to a very 

 small, seedy, worthless, burr-like West Indian cucumber, of 

 which poor pickles are sometimes made. 



Cucumbers should be planted in the richest soil, in hills from 

 four to six feet apart, six or eight seeds in a hill, at about an 

 inch in depth, and at the first or second hoeing only the three 

 strongest and healthiest plants should be left. Frequent and 

 deep hoeings, continued until prevented by the interlocking 

 vines, and gradual hilling up of the plants to the seed-leaves, 

 with the application of ash compost to the hills from time to 

 time after hoeing, will suffice in ordinary seasons to secure a 

 satisfactory crop. If planted in large patches, the ground, hav- 

 ing been prepared by thorough manuring and repeated plow- 



