WHEN THEY BEAR. 189 



The branches are all headed-in as soon as they reach 

 the top of the trellis or begin to encroach upon the 

 space allowed for neighboring plants. If the plants 

 grow very rapidly and the trellis is large, some prelimi- 

 nary heading back may be useful, but we have not prac- 

 ticed the very close pinching-in system recommended by 

 English growers. 



Bearing age. Growers who find no difficulty in forc- 

 ing the common cucumbers in winter often fail with the 

 English sorts. I am convinced that this failure comes 

 mostly from two errors : insufficient bottom heat, and 

 impatience for quick results. The grower must under- 

 stand that earliness is not a characteristic of the English 

 cucumbers. From the sowing of seed to marketable 

 fruits, in midwinter, is an average of 80 to 100 days, in 

 our experience. From a month to six weeks is required 

 for the fruit to attain saleable size after the flower is 

 set. A writer in Revue Horticole in 1874, records the 

 growing of Telegraph in 65 days from seed, which was 

 the quickest time on record in his vicinity. This experi- 

 ment was made from February to April, however, when 

 the days are lengthening. The plants continue in bearing 

 for three or four months under good treatment, and a 

 plant ought to yield at least eight goods fruits. If the 

 plants are pinched-in after the English custom, and al- 

 lowed to bear but two or three fruits at a time, the 

 fruiting season can be extended, and probably a larger 

 number of fruits can be obtained ; but it is probably 

 more profitable, especially in small houses, to secure 

 the returns more quickly, in order to obtain a larger 

 supply at any given time. Care must be taken not to 

 allow the heavy fruits to pull the vines off the support, 

 and those which do not hang free should be held up in 

 slings, for if allowed to lie on the soil, they do not color 

 evenly. Fig. 65 (see opposite page) shows (two fruits at 

 the right) the method of swinging the fruits in slings. 

 This swinging also appears to exert some influence upon 



