Proceedings of the Farmers' Club. 663 



Pickling Cucumbers. 



Mr. G. H. Barker wrote to inquire the best way of procuring 

 cucumbers for pickles. 



Mr. J. B. Lyman. — The raising of cucumbers for pickling is an 

 excellent business ; one of my neighbors produced 300 bushels of 

 cucumbers per acre last year, and they were «old to a pickling factory 

 for iifty cents per bushel, when picked about the size of the little 

 linger. The proper manner of preparing cucumbers for market is to 

 pick them when small and of a uniform size, and a great deal 

 depends upon that ; not larger than one's thumb, or not much larger 

 than one's little finger is the best. Then they should be put down in 

 salt and a very little water used ; there is enough juice comes out to 

 be absorbed by the salt, and this produces a brine. After they have 

 been in the brine until the time for selling conies, they should be 

 taken out and freshened by a succession of waters, and after that 

 they are put into the vinegar, and the better the vinegar the better 

 the pickles. Some use alum to give them a bright color, but if much 

 is used you impart a bad taste to the pickles ; but, in fact, it is 

 unnecessary to use alum at all. If you use good, strong cider vine- 

 gar, and get all the salt out of it by changing the waters, you get a 

 very good and excellent pickle. I made an experiment in that line 

 myself. I raised from eighteen hills 2,000 cucumbers, filling two 

 barrels, and sold them for eight dollars. These hills covered about 

 two square rods. I hoe my cucumbers over every week, and some- 

 times once every three days, cutting down the weeds. 



Gypsum. 



Mr. Wm. Oren Moreau, Hubbardston, Worcester county, Mass., 

 wanted to know where and at what price the gypsum used in the 

 vicinity of Montrose, Pa., is obtained; what is the price per ton 

 pulverized and barreled for transportation ; what is the freight to 

 Worcester ; what is its comparative value with that obtained from 

 Nova Scotia I 



' Mr. Wm. S. Carpenter said that there was a kind obtained in the 

 west which is blue, and some think it is preferable to that from Xova 

 Scotia. Both are worth, he thouglit, about fifteen dollars per ton in 

 the Xew York market, j)acked in barrels. 



^Lr. T. C. Peters. — The Cayuga plaster costs about four dollars at 

 the mill. But Xova Scotia gypsum is thrown upon the wharf 



