186 



Cultivation and Profits of Cucumbers. 



Vol. III. 



CiUtivatiou and Profits of Cucum'berst 



BY TUNIS O. BERGEN. 



Agreeable to promise, I will now endeavor 

 to describe the manner in whicli cucumbers 

 are cultivated on Lonir Island, tor the supply 

 of the New York markets, and will also give 

 the produce and amount of sales from my 

 crop of the preceding four years. Before pro- 

 ceeding with the matter, I would state, that 

 the descriptioa is intended for lield culture, 

 and tiiat our great object is, to have good 

 fruit, and as early as it is possible to produce 

 it, f()r two or three days makes agreatditier- 

 ence in its value in the markets. 



Cucumbers will grow on any good soil, but 

 to have them early, we require a rich sandy 

 one, of a dark color; yellow and light colored 

 ones being later. The field, if possible, re- 

 quires to be protected from the south and 

 north-west winds, and be situated near the 

 bay or river, where there is always less dan- 

 ger from late frosts. The south winds with 

 us, in May and June, retard vegetation more 

 than any other, in consequence of their being 

 chilly and cool, which qualities they receive 

 from the ocean. 



Ground intended for cucumbers, we prefer 

 ploughing in August or the beginning of 

 September of the preceding year, and sow- 

 ing with rye; the pasture which this pro- 

 duces pays for the labor, and among its ad- 

 vantages are, the prevention of weeds going 

 to seed and troubling us in the spring; the 

 soil not blowing about in winter, especially 

 on the knolls; neither is it so liable to blow 

 when ploughed in the spring, in consequence 

 of the roots of the plants, and the sustenance 

 afforded to the crop by the decay of the rye. 

 Previous to ploughing for the crop, there 

 should be spread about seven two-horse loads 

 of street or horse manure to the acre; but if 

 the soil is poor, more will be necessary, and 

 the ploughing .should take place immediately 

 after the spreading. The ground is then 

 harrowed over two or three times, until it is 

 mellow, furrowed shallow, with a plough, into 

 hills four and a half feet asunder, manured 

 with half a shovel full in a hill, which is flat- 

 tened down with a hoe, and covered about an 

 inch thick with fine soil. Short hog manure, 

 carted out of the pen the preceding fall, and 

 cut over early in the spring once or twice, 

 and made fine, is preferred for the hills; but 

 this not being generally sufficiently abund- 

 ant, wo procure the inanure of cows which 

 have been fed on distillers' slops, mi.xed with 

 that of horses, so as to make it sufficiently 

 firm to handle with a fork, from New York 

 in the fall, which we mix with the hog ma- 

 nure. The manure should be cool, for fer- 

 mentation in the hills is injurious to the 

 plants. 



The sooner the seed is planted^fter plough- 

 ing, the better: the time of planting depends 

 upon the forwardness of the season, and it is 

 generally commenced when single apricot 

 blossoms are open, but some sea.sons earlier. 

 About a week is occupied in putting in the 

 first seed, and nearly the same period in 

 planting over the first and second times. 

 The casualties to which the seed and plants 

 are subject, induces us to continue putting in 

 seed almost every day for this space of time, 

 so as to make certain work. It sometimes 

 happen.s, when the weather has been unfa- 

 vorable, that every hill in some fields is plant- 

 ed over the third, and even single hills the 

 fourth time. I prefer spreading the first seed 

 in the south half of the hills, the first plant- 

 ing over in the north-west, and the second in 

 the north-east quarters: if it becomes neces- 

 sary to phmt over the third time, I put the 

 seed in the south half, where the first seed 

 by that time is rotten. If this plan is proper- 

 ly followed, the different plantings will not 

 interfere with each other. We generally 

 put in from thirty to forty seeds each lime, 

 and cover them with fine soil from three- 

 quarters to an inch deep. Sprouting the seed 

 previous to planting docs not succeed well 

 early in the season, but does .sometimes when 

 the weather is favorable in the latter part. 

 Cucumber seed is the tenderest of the vine 

 kind, fi)r if, after planting at the usual depth, 

 wet weather should follow, it is almost cer- 

 tain to rot; if dry, it dries out; if, when fa- 

 vorable to their vegetating, and the plants 

 have advanced so as to be breaking ground, 

 a storm should occur, they generally perish ; 

 a north-easter of three or four days' continu- 

 ance destroys the plants when young, and in 

 some instances when more than a week old ; 

 if up too early, a late frost is apt to sweep 

 them clean. Seed to vegetate requires to be 

 near the surface of the wet soil, not buried 

 deep into it; our ignorance of the weather 

 which will follow after planting, causes most 

 of our errors; when planted in a heavy soil, 

 it is less liable to rot and dry out than in a 

 sandy one, but the fruit is later. If it hap- 

 pens that there are more plants in a hill than 

 we require, we find it an easy matter to era- 

 dicate them with the hoe and fingers, but it 

 is not so easy to place them in the hills when 

 deficient. 



When the first rough leaves of the plants 

 are about the size of a twenty-five cent piece, 

 a cultivator isrun through the rows both way.s, 

 and tliey receive the fir.-it hoeing; the plants 

 are also thinned out, so as not to crowd each 

 other. In liOiMUg, the soil bi>tween the plants 

 should not be disturbed ; large weeii.s. (if 

 any,) be pulled out; fine soil drawn around 

 the plants up to the seed leaves, so as to co- 

 ver small weeds, and the hill made flat and 



