VEGETABLES CUCUMBER. 199 



duces ears of very large size and fine flavor. It is un- 

 usually productive, and is the variety almost exclusively 

 grown by New York market gardeners for their late 

 crop. 



CUCUMBER,. (Cucumis sativus.) 



The growing of the Cucumber out-of-doors is, in most 

 places, attended with a great deal of annoyance and 

 loss, occasioned by the attacks of the "Striped Bug." 

 When the seed is sown in the open ground, repeated sow- 

 ings are often utterly destroyed by this pest, despite 

 all remedies. To avoid this, and at the same time to 

 forward the crop at least a week, we have long adopted 

 the following method with the greatest success : About 

 the middle of May (for this section), we cut from a pas- 

 ture lot, sods two to three inches thick ; these are placed 

 with the grassy side down, either on the benches of our 

 forcing-house, in an exhausted hot-bed, or inside of a 

 cold frame ; at that season of the year any one of these 

 will do as well as another. The sods being fitter! together 

 neatly so that all crevices are filled up, they are then 

 cut into squares about three or four inches in length 

 and breadth ; on each of these are planted two or three 

 seeds of Cucumber, and over the whole is sifted about 

 half an inch of covering of some fine rich mold. They 

 are then sprinkled thoroughly from a rose watering- 

 pot, and the sashes put on and kept closed until the 

 seeds begin to germinate, which will be in three or four 

 days. As soon as they are up, the sashes must be raised 

 to admit air, else the sun's rays, acting on the glass, 

 would raise the temperature too high ; at that season of 

 the year the sashes, as a rule, may be tilted up at eight 

 or nine o'clock in the morning, and shut down by three 

 or four o'clock in the afternoon. By the time the Cu- 



