e 
302 VEGETABLE FORCING 
sunny spring weather. When its culture is undertaken 
through the dull, cloudy weather of the fall and winter, 
the plants are more susceptible to disease and they grow 
much slower than during the spring. The yields, too, are 
much lighter in the winter season and more attention 
must be given to pollination than in the spring. 
In fact the greatest precautions are necessary in the 
production of late fall and winter cucumbers, and only 
experienced growers should undertake their culture under 
such unfavorable conditions. Though the price for winter 
cucumbers may be four or five times that of the spring 
crop, the extra labor and the additional coal required 
generally make it difficult to realize a profit, and for this 
reason most greenhouse men prefer to grow lettuce until 
spring or late in the winter and then start cucumbers or 
tomatoes. 
Ground beds vs. raised benches.—As stated on 
page 322 there is no question about the value of bottom 
heat, but this fact does not indicate that raised benches 
are preferable to ground beds for the forcing of the cu- 
cumber as a spring crop. 
Experiments conducted by Waid at the Ohio Experi- 
ment Station show that raised benches produced the larg- 
est amount of early fruit, but ground beds the largest total 
yield. The results were as follows: Plants trained up- 
right on 228 square feet of raised bench produced 655 
firsts and 87 seconds previous to July 4. Plants trained 
upright on 228 square feet of ground bed produced 586 
firsts and 67 seconds previous to July 4. The total yield 
of firsts and seconds from the raised benches was 748 and 
144, respectively, and from the ground bed 824 firsts and 
168 seconds. While arguments can be advanced in favor 
of growing cucumbers on raised benches, practically all 
growers prefer ground beds. The question of the in- 
fluence of bottom heat is discussed on page 322. 
Varieties.—There are two distinct types of cucumbers, | 
