CUCUMBERS 255 



harvesting the whole, and even on these terms the offer was not 

 quickly accepted, indicating the attitude of labor toward this crop. 



The salting station. The gathering points, or receiving depots, 

 maintained by pickle factories in communities where cucumbers 

 are commercially grown are called salting stations. The equipment 

 of the salting station consists of a long, low building provided with 

 a large number of wooden tanks, a common size of which is 

 10 feet in depth and 16 feet in diameter, with a capacity of about 

 1500 bushels. An ordinary salting station will hold 40 of these 

 tanks, with a total capacity of 60,000 bushels. 



As the cucumbers are received, if they are of comparatively uni- 

 form size, they are dumped directly from the receptacles in which 

 they are delivered into the vats,. The vats are first provided to the 

 depth of from 12 to 18 inches with 7 5 -degree or 8o-degree Baume 

 brine, which is made by adding 2 pounds of salt to each gallon of 

 water. As cucumbers are added, 100 pounds of salt for each 1000 

 pounds of cucumbers are scattered over the fruits, which means 

 approximately 5 pounds of salt to each bushel of cucumbers. If it 

 requires more than a single day to fill a tank, a quantity of salt 

 should be scattered over the fruits before suspending work at night ; 

 and if Sunday or a holiday intervenes, the cucumbers should be 

 salted and pressed under the brine from time to time during the in- 

 terval. This will keep them from becoming soft and yellow. If the 

 tank is not too large, a false head can be employed, which will 

 serve to hold the cucumbers under the brine. In large tanks this 

 is a troublesome process, and the customary means of protecting 

 the cucumbers is to push them under the brine with a suitable 

 paddle. 



After the tank is full, and before the false head has been put in 

 place, the weight of the cucumbers in the tank should be estimated 

 and i pound of salt added for each 100 pounds of fruit. A part 

 of this salt can be placed on top of the cover, and the tank then 

 filled with fresh water until the liquid stands from 4 to 6 inches 

 above the top of the cover. The salt should not be washed off the 

 cover by pumping water on it, but the water should be pumped 

 into a tube made of 6-inch boards long enough to reach from 

 the top to the bottom and fitted to one side of the tank, so as to 

 carry the fresh liquid to the bottom. 



