CULTURE OF CUCUMBERS FOR PICKLING. 331 



experienced grower gives the following information in regard to this 

 crop: 



" The culture of cucumbers for pickling is very profitable under 

 some circumstances. These are when the grower is near a large city, 

 or has facilities for disposing of his product in a fresh state to fac- 

 tories in which the vegetables are pickled either in salt or vinegar, or 

 when he has facilities for preserving them himself for sale in distant 

 markets, as in manufacturing towns, lumbering or mining villages 

 and camps, or to dealers in ship stores, or even to village stores, 

 where the pickles can be retailed during the winter season. As there 

 is a large and regular demand for pickles, there are many places 

 where factories can be established for their manufacture with success 

 and profit, and more conveniently in conjunction with the business of 

 cider making, with a view to providing a supply of pure vinegar; can- 

 ning and drying vegetables and fruits; making jellies, and even adding 

 to all these an outfit for making sorghum syrup and sugar from the 

 cane. A factory of this kind could find work the whole year round, 

 and would require only a very moderate capital for its furnishing, 

 because the same building and much of the apparatus would serve for 

 all these purposes, and some only would be required for each special 

 use. But a pickle factory should be erected in a good apple country, 

 where fruit for cider could be procured very cheaply. 



"The culture of the cucumbers is very simple. Although this 

 vegetable consists almost wholly of water, yet it requires rich soil, or 

 at least a liberal quantity of manure, to force the growth so quickly 

 as to secure the requisite tenderness and succulence. A light, sandy, 

 warm soil is the best. This is plowed deeply, because the roots of 

 all the gourd tribe spread widely and love a loose soil, in which 

 they can find adequate moisture and warmth. For the pickling 

 varieties, of which the Green Prolific is the best and is almost 

 universally grown, the ground is marked out four feet apart each 

 way, a deep furrow being made so as to leave room for a good shovel- 

 ful of rich compost at each crossing. This is worked in with the 

 spade or hoe and the ground leveled. Five or six seeds are dropped 

 in each hill, about one pound of seed being required for one acre. 

 When the plants are up they are thinned out to three to each hill. 

 When the seed is sown a broadcast dressing of 300 or 400 pounds of 

 Peruvian guano per acre may be given with great advantage, as this 

 fertilizer seems to have a specially good effect on this crop; super- 

 phosphate of lime is the next best, and fine bone flour comes next. 

 With this preparation and 400 pounds of guano per acre, costing $15, 

 we have grown over 300,000 cucumbers to the acre, which is double 

 the average crop and equal to about 100 to each hill. The excess in 



