CUCUMBER. 



89 



Proceed thus to set every fruit, as the flowers of both sorts 

 open, while of a lively, full expansion ; and generally per- 

 form it in the early part of the day ; using a fresh male, if 

 possible, for each impregnation, as the males are usually 

 more abundant than the female blossoms. In consequence, 

 the young fruit will soon be observed to swell freely. Cu- 

 cumbers attain the proper size for gathering in about fifteen, 

 eighteen, or twenty days from the time of setting ; and 

 often in succession, for two or three months or more, in the 

 same bed, by good culture. The above artificial operation 

 will be found both necessary and effectual in forcing the 

 cucumber, betvv^een the decline of autumn and May, while 

 the plants are mostly shut under glass. In plants m.ore- 

 freely exposed to the free air, in the increasing v/armth of 

 spring, and in having the full open air in summer, from 

 June or July till September, the impregnation is effected 

 mostly or wholly by nature. The male flowers, being by 

 some ignorantly denominated false blossoms.- are often 

 plucked wholly off as useless, under a notion of strengthen- 

 ing the plant : but this should not be generally done. 

 Where crowded too thick in clusters, some may be thinned 

 out moderately ; but their agency being absolutely neces- 

 sary in fertilizing the females, they should only be displaced 

 as they begin to decay, except w^here they are superabun- 

 dant." 



Principal summer crop. — " The ground being dug and 

 smoothed, line it into squares of six feet. In the centre of 

 each, dig a hole about fourteen inches deep ; fill this Vv^ith 

 well rotted dung., and sow on it five or six cucumber seeds : 

 cover these with mould, and, when they rise and take a 

 rough leaf, select two to each hill, and draw out the 

 remainder. This sowing cannot be safely made in our cli- 

 mate till the 10th of May. For the fall and pickling 

 crops, you must sow the first or second week in July." — 

 Armstrong, 



Those cucumbers-, which are sowed as late as July, will 

 not require topping or cutting off the runners as before di- 

 rected, for at this season vegetation will be less vigorous, 

 and there will be lej?s danger of the plant running too much 

 to vine. 



Raising plants from cuttings, — ^"Instead of raising cucumber 

 plants from seed, they may be raised from cuttings, and thus 

 kept on from year to year, in the following manner : — Take a 

 shoot that is just ready for stopping, cut it oil' just below the 

 joint, behind the joint before wliich the .;hoot should have 

 8 



