CROW-FOOT. 



CUCUMBER. 



the carrion crow in appearance ; but is only a 

 constant resident of the northern parts of Eng- 

 land and the western islands of Scotland; it is 

 more destructive to the farmers' lambs, &c. 

 than the carrion crow. Its colour is black. 

 Length, twenty inches. (Yarrell's Brit. Birds, 

 vol. ii. p. 7983.) 



.CROW-FOOT, or Crane's Bill. The spe- 

 cies usually known by this name in England, 

 is the Ranunculus acris of botanists. This, with 

 all its varieties, are poisonous. The comrion 

 medicinal crow-foot is the medicinal plant, 

 which, however, is only used externally, the 

 application of the recent leaves or root pro- 

 ducing a blister. The most poisonous variety 

 is that called spear-wood. The plant known 

 in the United States by the name of crow-foot, 

 or spotted crane's-bill, is the spotted geranium 

 (Geranium maculalinn}, a perennial tuberous 

 root, found along fence-rows, in meadows, 

 woodlands, &c., flowering in May and June. 

 The root is astringent and has been found use- 

 ful in diarrhoea, hemorrhages, &c. See Flora 

 Cestrird. 



CROW NET. A net made of double thread 

 or fine packthread, principally used for catch- 

 ing wildfowl in the winter season ; but which 

 may also be employed on newly sown corn- 

 fields for catching pigeons, crows, and other 

 birds ; and, even in stubble-fields, if the stubble 

 conceals the net from the birds. 



CROWN IMPERIAL (Fritillaria imperia- 

 /is). Native of Persia, with a large, scaly, 

 bulbous, or orange-coloured, disagreeably 

 smelling root. Blows pendent red flowers in 

 April and May. There are three varieties, the 

 red-flowered, the red striped-flowered with 

 striped leaves, and the yellow-flowered; that 

 blowing a yellow flower is the handsomest. 

 Propagate by offsets every third year, taking 

 up the bulbs in July for that purpose. It loves 

 a sandy loam, and is averse to manure or wet. 

 See FEIITILLAKT. 



CRUCIFORM-PLANTS (Cruet/me), a class 

 comprehending such garden vegetables as the 

 cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, sea-kale, turnip, 

 radish, mustard, and in fact almost every culi- 

 uary article, except spinach. The class de- 

 rives its name from the flowers having four 

 petals or flower-leaves, disposed in the form 

 of a cross, as exemplified in the wall-flower. 

 It is remarked by botanists, that not a single 

 species included in this group is poisonous. 

 Kven that great pest among weeds, charlock, 

 or wild radish, which belongs to the cruciform 

 clns>, affords when young most excellent and 

 wholesome greens. 



('KIPPER. A term applied to the rump of 

 'a horse ; also to a roll of leather put under a 

 horse's tail, and drawn up by a strap to the 

 buckle behind the saddle. 



CRUSHERS FOR GRAIN, are evidently 

 coming fast into use; the saving of food, by 

 giving the grain in a broken state, being cer- 

 tainly very considerable. It is a practice at 

 least as old as the days of Samuel Hartlib, 

 who mentions it with approbation in his " Le- 

 gacie." Machines for cracking and crushing 

 Indian corn by hand for feed, are quite com 

 inon in the United States. 



CUCKOO PINT. SeeAuuK. 

 368 



CUCKOO SPIT. Applied to a kind of 

 frothy substance frequently found on plants, 

 containing insects. See FROGHOPPETIS. 



CUCUMBER (Cucumis sativus. From X/JH/SC 

 or <racvoc. Varro says, "Cucumeres dicuntur a 

 curvore, ut curvirnere dicti"). The following 

 are the chief varieties : 1. Early short green 

 prickly; 2. early long green prickly ; 3. most 

 long green prickly; 4. early green cluster; 5. 

 white Dutch prickly; 6. long smooth green 

 Turkey; 7. large smooth green Roman; 8. 

 Flanegan's; 9. Russian; 10. white Turkey; 

 11. Nepal; 12. fluted (from China); 13. the 

 snake. 



The early short prickly is ab'out four inches 

 long, and is often preferred for the first crop, as 

 being a very plentiful bearer, quick in coming 

 into production, and the hardiest of all the va- 

 rieties. The early long prickly is about seven 

 inches long; it is a hardy, abundantly bearing 

 variety, but not quick in coming into produc- 

 tion. It is generally grown for main crops. 

 The longest prickly is about nine or ten inches 

 in length; it is a hardy, good bearer. There is 

 a white sub-var.iety. The early green cluster 

 is a very early bearer. Its fruit is about six 

 inches long. It is chiefly characterized by its 

 fruit growing in clusters. The whole plant 

 grows compact, and is well suited for hand- 

 glass crops. The white Dutch prickly is about 

 six inches long; it has an agreeable flavour, 

 though differing from most of the others. It 

 comes quickly into bearing. 



The other varieties are slow in coming into 

 production, and are chiefly remarkable for their 

 great size. The Nepal often weighs twelve 

 pounds, being occasionally eight inches in dia- 

 meter and seventeen in length. It is a native 

 of Calcutta. The snake cucumber is very small 

 in diameter, but attains the length, it is said, 

 of several feet. 



A fresh loam, rather inclining to lightness 

 than tenacity, as the top-spit of a pasture, is 

 perhaps as fine a soil as can be employed for 

 the cucumber. It will succeed in any open 

 soil of the garden for the hand-glass and natu- 

 ral ground crops. 



The out-door culture of cucumbers practised 

 throughout the United States is so familiarly 

 known as to require no particular description. 

 In the neighbourhood of large cities the large 

 demand for cucumbers causes these to be in- 

 cluded among the articles of field-culture, and 

 this is done to great profit by the Long Island 

 and New Jersey truck farmers, for the supply 

 of the New York and Philadelphia markets. It 

 is a great object to get the produce into market 

 as early as possible, as only a few days advan- 

 tage makes a great difference in the value of 

 this, in common with most other articles sup- 

 plied by gardeners, fruiterers, and truckmen. 

 Thomas G. Bergen, an intelligent and experi- 

 enced gardener on Long Island, communicated 

 to the editor of the Cultivator the following ac- 

 count of his method of raising cucumbers, to- 

 gether with his estimate of the produce and 

 profits of the crop. 



" Cucumbers will grow on any good soil, but 

 to have them early we require a rich sandy 

 one, of a dark colour; yellow and light-coloured 

 ones being later. The field, if possible, re 



