230 GARDEN FARMING 



the plan used, the product is always packed in barrels and well 

 iced before shipment. 



Since well-established beds last several years and produce abun- 

 dantly, water cress, if properly handled, is a profitable crop. 



CUCUMBERS 



Few if any of our garden vegetables have shown greater varia- 

 tion under cultivation than the cucumber. These differences are 

 most strikingly seen in the size and shape of the fruits. The ex- 

 treme smoothness and great length of the cucumbers which have 

 been developed under the intensive cultural systems followed in 

 England, where this plant is grown almost exclusively under glass, 

 are in marked contrast to the types usually found in American 

 gardens, either under glass or in the open. This is especially true 

 in the case of the English cucumbers as compared with the types 

 which are extensively grown for pickling purposes in this country. 

 There is also a decided difference in the shape and texture of the 

 leaves of the American and English types. These wide variations 

 of leaf and fruit, however, are not considered sufficient by botanists 

 for placing the two types under different species. Nevertheless 

 they are decided and distinct horticultural varieties. 



Botany. To botanists all the horticultural varieties of cucumbers, 

 whether of the type of the English forcing cucumber or of our 

 American garden sorts, are known as Cucumis sativus. The cucum- 

 ber, like many other plants which have been under cultivation for 

 many centuries, has a very incomplete history. Investigations and 

 researches of De Candolle, however, are to the effect that the native 

 home of the garden cucumber is undoubtedly in northwest India. 

 It was carried from this region into China during the second cen- 

 tury before the Christian era. It was also known and cultivated 

 by the ancient Greeks under the name of sikuos, which remains 

 as sikau in the modern language. These investigations have also 

 shown that prior to its distribution in China and to the west, the 

 cucumber was undoubtedly long cultivated by the inhabitants of 

 the region to which it was native. For a more complete synopsis 

 of the history of the garden cucumber, the student is referred to 

 De Candolle's " Origin of Cultivated Plants," pages 264-266. 



