328 VEGETABLE FORCING 
not necessary to get a good crop of fruit. The cucumbers 
are easily harvested as they hang under the trellis. 
The upright form of training (Figs: 110 and 112) is 
unquestionably the most popular system used in the 
United States. It provides for a single stem that may be 
trained only a few feet high, or it may be grown to a 
height of 8 feet or more. Ordinarily it is not more than 
7 feet in height. Each lateral is generally pinched beyond 
the first node, where one or more fruits nearly always 
develop, and cucumbers are also borne along the main 
stem. Some growers allow considerable branching over- 
head, where the vines are supported by wires, and such 
branches produce fruit late in the season or during the 
latter period of harvesting. This plan is popular in the 
Boston district, where the rows run across the house in- 
stead of lengthwise. Wires are stretched overhead the 
full width of the house and fastened with screw hooks or 
perhaps secured to pipes. A few light wires which are 
above the heavier cross wires run lengthwise, thus form- 
ing a sort of trellis. Wires are also run across the beds 
at the ground, below the overhead cross wires, and they 
are secured to staples driven in the wooden side boards 
of the beds. Several-ply jute twine is stretched for each 
plant, between the lower and upper wires, and the plant 
as it grows is quickly twined about the string, no tying 
being necessary. This system of training is well adapted 
to the American type. 
Some growers prefer not to allow the plants to branch 
at the top. This results in a more intensive system. For 
example, in one section of Massachusetts, where the 
houses are comparatively small and there are many of 
them, the plants are set, rather early in the fall, on raised 
beds with bottom heat. In some instances the plants are 
not permitted to attain a height of more than 4 feet. 
The soil on the beds is about a foot deep and the plants 
are liberally fed with liquid manure to prevent them from 
