Notes and Gleanings. 359 



and bugs ; usually putting six or eight times as many seeds in a hill as will be 

 really required for the crop. When the plants are well established and beyond 

 danger, the field is examined, and the hills thinned to three or four plants, or, 

 where there is a deficiency of plants, replanted. As fast as the cucumbers attain 

 the proper size, they should be plucked ; the usual practice being to go over the 

 plantation daily. In gathering, all the fruit should be removed. — the misshapen 

 and unmarketable as well as those which are well formed ; for, when any por- 

 tion of the crop is allowed to remain and ripen, the plants become much less 

 productive. In favorable seasons, and under a high state of cultivation, a hun- 

 dred and twenty-five thousand are ob^^ained from an acre ; while, under opposite 

 conditions, the crop may not exceed fifty thousand. The average price is about 

 a dollar and twenty-five cents per thousand. 



Varieties. — Early Cluster ; Ear! / Green Cluster. — A popular early cucum- 

 ber, producing its fruit in clusters, near the root of the plant ; whence the name. 

 The plant is healthy, hardy, and vigorous ; fruit comparatively short and thick. 

 Its usual length is about five inches, and its diameter about two inches ; skin 



prickly, green ; at the blossom-end often paler, or nearly white ; brownish-yellow 

 when ripe ; flesh white, seedy, tender, and well flavored, but less crispy or brittle 

 than that of many other varieties. It is a good early garden sort, and is quite 

 productive ; but is not well adapted for pickling, on account of the soft and seedy 

 character of its flesh. 



Early Russian. — This comparatively new variety resembles, in some respects, 

 the Early Cluster. Fruit from three to four mches in length, an inch and a half 

 or two inches in diameter, and generally produced in pairs ; flesh tender, crisp, 

 and well flavored. When rijDe, the fruit is deep yellow or yellowish-brown. Its 

 merits are its hardiness, extreme earliness, and great productiveness. It comes 

 into use nearly ten days in advance of the Early Cluster, and is the earliest gar- 

 den variety now cultivated. Its small size is, however, considered an objection; 

 and some of the larger kinds are generally preferred for the main crop. 



Early Frame j Short Green. — One of the oldest of the garden sorts, justly 

 st3-led a standard variety. Plant healthy and vigorous, six to ten feet in length ; 

 fruit straight and well formed, five inches and a half long, and two inches and a 

 half in diameter ; skin deep green, paler at the blossom-end, changing to clear 



