THE FORCING OF ENGLISH CUCUMBERS. 



745 



becomes a profitable plant. Some plants become stunt- 

 ed without apparent cause. To insure a good stand, I 

 advise starting three or four times as many plants as are 

 needed. The most vigorous ones are set out a foot or 

 a foot and a half apart. As soon 

 as the plants are established, the 

 weaker ones are destroyed, leav- 

 ing the remaining individuals 

 from two and a-half to three feet 

 apart. A good plant will grow 

 vigorously from the start, and 

 sometimes the lower leaves will 

 fall off, giving it a scraggly and 

 diseased appearance ; but so long 

 as the growing portions are vig- 

 orous and the leaves are not at- 

 tacked by mildew, the plant is in 

 good condition. 



The plants must now be 

 trained. We make a simple trel- 

 lis of No. 18 annealed wire. 

 When there is sufficient room 

 above the benches, the plants are 

 trained upon a perpendicular 

 trellis, but on low benches they 

 are trained along the roof. The 

 wires are stretched lengthwise of 

 the house in parallel strands from 

 a foot to one and a half feet apart, 

 ^and cross wires are run down 

 from the rafters every four or 

 five feet to prevent the strands 

 from sagging. The vines are tied 

 upon the wires with raffia or 

 other soft cord. Two or three 

 strong main branches are trained 

 out, and only enough side shoots 

 are allowed to grow to cover the 

 trellis, the remaining ones being 

 pinched out as soon as they ap- 

 pear. It is essential that the 

 plants do not become "choked" 

 or overcrowded with young 

 growth, and some of the large 

 leaves may be taken off in the 

 dark days of mid-winter, if the 

 foliage becomes very dense. The 

 branches are all headed-in as 

 soon as they reach the top of the 

 trellis or begin to encroach upon 

 the space allowed for neighbor- 

 ing plants. 'If the plants grow 

 very rapidly and the trellis is 

 large, some preliminary heading back may be useful, but 

 we have not practiced the very close pinching-in system 

 recommended by English growers. 



Earliness is not a characteristic of the English cucum- 

 bers. From the sowing, of seed to marketable fruits, in 

 mid-winter, is an average of 80 to 100 days, in our ex- 



perience. From a month to six weeks are required for 

 the fruit to attain salable size after the flower has set. 

 The plants continue in bearing for three or four months 

 under good treatment, and a plant ought to yield at least 



English Cucumber — The Lorne (Marquis of Lorne). 



eight good fruits. If the plants are pinched in after the 

 English custom, and allowed to bear but two or three 

 fruits at a time, the fruiting season can be extended, and 

 probably a larger number of fruits can be obtained; but 

 it is probably more profitable, especially in small houses, 

 to secure the returns more quickly, in order to obtain a 



