CUCUMBERS | 853 
Cucumbers 
Cucumis Sativus 
Long Green Cucumber. 
The cucumber is a well known fruit, 
grown in all parts of the civilized world, 
and cultivated from very early times. 
It is supposed to have been cultivated in 
the days of Moses, and mentioned in 
Numbers XI: 5. Alphonso de Condolle 
affirms that the cucumber was cultivated 
in India 3,000 years ago. The plant is 
an annual trailing vine, with stalked 
hairy leaves, and tendrils by means of 
which the plant can be trained to sup- 
ports. There are a large number of var- 
ieties which may be classified under two 
general heads as follows: 
First. Forcing or hot house varieties. 
Second. Outdoor or field varieties. 
The “forcing varieties,” are started in 
hot houses or hot beds, and later may 
be transplanted to the open air, or the 
growth continued under glass for winter 
use. 
The outdoor varieties are planted in 
hills, about six feet apart, six or eight 
seeds to the hill and then thinned to 
two or three after they are fairly start- 
ed, and the strongest plants left for 
further development. When the vines are 
about two feet long, some growers pinch 
off the tops so that the vine will put out 
lateral shoots and bear a heavier crop. 
The flowers are pollenized by insects, 
and the varieties will mix by inter- 
pollination. 
Soil Best Adapted 
The cucumber will do fairly well on al- 
most any soil that will grow corn, wheat 
or oats; but it does best on deep, rich 
loam. When the ground is warm and 
well prepared, it may be planted as early 
in the spring as the time when danger 
of frost is past; and the seed covered 
about one inch deep. There are no spe- 
cial directions necessary; for the cucum- 
ber is so common that almost every one 
knows something of its habits of growth. 
Picking 
The time for picking cucumbers de- 
pends on the uses to which they are to 
be applied. If grown for pickles, they 
are picked when about three inches long. 
The whole area should be gone over every 
second day and all of the required size 
carefully removed from the vines, cut- 
ting the stem about a quarter to half 
an inch from the cucumber. Care 
should be exercised to see that the pick- 
ers do not bruise the vines by tramping 
upon them, or the crop will be injured. 
If cucumbers are meant for table use, 
they may be allowed to grow to consid- 
erable size, say six inches in length, pro- 
vided that they should not be allowed to 
