CUCUMBER. 51 



Seed is allowed to remain on the drying frame until 

 it is reasonably dry, and then it is removed therefrom 

 and spread out thinly on the floor of a dry, airy room, 

 where it is watched until it is thoroughly dry, being 

 stirred and turned over occasionally. 



Another way of drying after being taken off the 

 screens, is to place the seed in sacks, filled about one- 

 third full, and these are thrown across a fence or other 

 convenient place in the air during the day, till the 

 seeds have become thoroughly dry. 



Cucumber seed should not be stored or packed for 

 shipment until perfectly dry, known by seed breaking 

 crisply without bending. 



Market. Besides being grown in all private gardens, 

 cucumbers are planted extensively for market by 

 truckers, and also by farmers as a field crop for com- 

 mercial picklers. The consumption of seed, therefore, 

 in this country is very large, and runs up to many 

 hundreds of thousands of pounds annually. It is all 

 produced here, the most of it in Connecticut, New 

 York, New Jersey, Michigan, Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, 

 and Colorado, but as is shown by these localities, 

 almost any section in the United States is adapted for 

 its culture. 



In a favorable season a yield of cucumber seed will 

 average 250 pounds per acre, though at times it has 

 been known to greatly exceed this, having reached as 

 high as 750 pounds. 



Up to within the past few years, growers' prices have 

 ruled from twelve to fifteen cents per pound, but since 

 the disastrous crop failures in the seasons of 1902 and 

 1903, due to ravages of plant lice, prices have gone 

 higher, ranging now from twenty-five to thirty-five 

 cents per pound. When the market returns to its nor- 



