1010.] PUBLIC DOCUMENT — No. 31. 157 



The best soil for cucumbers is composed of loam, decomposed 

 sod and horse manure. Xo other manure of any kind is neces- 

 sary, and should not be applied except sparingly, and as for 

 commercial fertilizers, none should be used except ground bone 

 and wood ashes, and it is questionable whether these are of any 

 value. Cucumbers require a porous soil, and this is furnished 

 by the sod and horse manure. When growing in solid beds the 

 crop can be treated with horse manure if necessary to furnish 

 underground heat, but trenching of the horse manure should be 

 at least eight inches or one foot below the surface. 



Malnutrition in cucumbers is characterized by a rolling of 

 the foliage, producing a convexity of the upper surface of the 

 leaf. The edges or margins of the leaf may or may not be 

 slightly burned or dead, but this symptom is often associated with 

 malnutrition. This latter condition may also be caused by a 

 lack of root absorption and excessive transpiration. In extreme 

 cases, besides the more or less severe curling of the leaves, the 

 vascular bundles or veins become badly contorted, the leaves 

 arrested in growth and the apex of the stem curled up into a 

 mass ; and plants once in this condition may remain so for 

 weeks. There is, however, a certain amount of plasticity in 

 cucumber plants, as in all others, and they sometimes succeed in 

 adapting themselves to extreme conditions, and showing some 

 attempt to recover or outgrow these symptoms. In very severe 

 cases, such as were found to be associated with a rich soil to 

 which had been added an excessive amount of pulverized sheep 

 manure, and which had received the hot-water treatment, the 

 fruit becomes mottled and irregular in shape, the surface often 

 presenting excrescences or tubercular growths. 



We have had occasion to observe a large number of cases of 

 malnutrition in greenhouses in this as well as in other States, 

 and a few of the conditions which produce it may be mentioned 

 here. It should be pointed out that practically all greenhouse 

 growers of cucumbers start with a well-manured soil composed 

 of sod, loam and horse manure. A soil prepared in this way is 

 suitable, without the addition of anything else for the normal 

 production of cucumbers, ap,d even if well supplied with horse 

 manure it is not likely to produce cases of malnutrition. There 

 is, to be sure, much difference in horse manure, some being much 



