Cucumbers most likely to produce good Seed. 333 



high. They are afterwards judiciously thinned, both of old 

 and young wood, and the young shoots shortened ; for which 

 purpose each man is provided with a handsaw and a large 

 pruning-knife. One man will prune about fifty ordinary-sized 

 trees per day. After finishing pruning, they are all dug round 

 with a spud, the instrument used in hop-digging ; and, about 

 midsummer, they are gone over, and all suckers grubbed up from 

 the roots. Cultivators calculate upon 12 or 14 cwt. per acre as 

 an average crop ; and sometimes they will have a ton, but that is 

 not often. The largest plantation in this quarter belongs to 

 Mrs. Porter, at Sutton Valence, and contains sixteen hundred 

 trees, planted 12 ft. apart. 



East Sutton Park, near Maidstone^ Feb. 2. 1838. 



Art. VII. On the Cucumbers most lihely to produce good Seed. 

 By John Wighton, Gardener to Lord Stafford, 



Long and straight cucumbers are often preserved for seed ; 

 but they seldom contain any that is good, while, on the con- 

 trary, if deformed cucumbers of the same kind, with swollen 

 ends, be kept for the same purpose, they are sure to supply 

 plenty of good seed. This has probably led gardeners to 

 adopt the singular practice of tying a string round cucumbers to 

 render them deformed. I have often asked them what good 

 the string could do, but have never received a satisfactory 

 answer. Many, no doubt, in this as in other customs, merely 

 do it because they see it done by others. 



Tying a string round a cucumber can surely have no effect 

 upon the goodness of the seed. The cause of failure must be 

 a defective impregnation. The common process of applying the 

 blossoms for what is usually termed propagation, may be ob- 

 served, and still may not produce proper impregnation. 



It is observable that those cucumbers which contain good 

 seed always have the blossom end a little swollen. This, I am 

 persuaded, is a consequence of perfect impregnation ; for the 

 good seed never extends beyond that part which is swollen. 

 As already observed, bent cucumbers, with swollen ends, always 

 contain good seed ; but straight ones will contain seed equally 

 good, provided they are also swollen at the end. The only 

 thing to be alleged in favour of tying cucumbers to deform them 

 is, that it gives the seeds at one end more room to come to per- 

 fection, by causing that part of the fruit to swell. The long 

 cucumbers, being mofe solid than short ones, contain less pulpy 

 matter. 



Having stated that the cause of bad seed in cucumbers is 

 defective impregnation, it will be natural to enquire how it hap- 



