A B C OF FLORIDA TRUCKING 87 



plant puts on its third leaf until your last picking. You 

 will find it much easier to prevent blight and mildew 

 than to cure them. 



RAISING THE PLANTS UNDER COVER. 



A great many truckers prefer to plant cucumber seed 

 in paper pots or quart strawberry baskets, putting these in 

 hot beds or cold frames, where they can be protected, let- 

 ting the plants grow there until all danger of cold is over. 

 If you start them in this manner you may plant the seed 

 at least six weeks earlier than you can where you plant 

 them in the open ground, and by maturing the crop from a 

 month to six weeks earlier you are apt to increase your 

 returns from $200.00 to $500.00 per acre, 



FORCING. 



In case it is impossible to have the cucumber field irri- 

 gated, buy a number of fifty-gallon barrels, oil barrels 

 are best for this purpose; scatter these through the patch, 

 four or five to the acre ; fill them up with water, using one 

 and a half quarts of nitrate of soda to each barrel. ]\Iake 

 a slight depression in the ground about six inches from 

 the cucumber plants, and pour a small cup of liquid into it 

 once of twice a week. Several children with buckets and 

 cups can cover quite a bit of ground in an hour, but you 

 must be careful to see that the solution does not touch the 

 vines. This method will not only furnish the vines what 

 water they need, but will double the yield and make your 

 crop from ten days to two weeks earlier. 



