746 



THE FORCING OF ENGLISH CUCUMBERS. 



larger supply at any given time. Care must be taken 

 not to allow the heavy fruits to pull the vines off the 

 support, and those which do not hang free should be 

 held up in slings, for if allowed to lie on the soil they do 

 not color evenly. This swinging also appears to exert 

 some influence upon the shape of the fruit. 



Varieties. — There are many good varieties of Eng- 

 lish cucumbers. We have grown Sion House most, 

 and for general purposes prefer it. It is of medium 

 length, averaging a foot or fourteen inches when fully 

 mature, smooth and regular. It would probably sell 

 better than the larger sorts in markets which are unac- 

 customed to the large English varieties. Telegraph is 

 also a favorite variety. It is a smooth, slender and very 



attain their complete growth, although they remain edi- 

 ble for some time after they have reached maturity. 



Pollination. — In cucumber-growing out-doors, the 

 pollen is carried from staminate to pistillate flowers 

 by insects, but pollen-carrying insects are absent from 

 the greenhouse. If the flowers are fertilized in the 

 house, therefore, the pollen must be carried by hand. 

 There is a question, however, if pollination is advisable 

 in the house, for the English cucumber will grow to 

 perfection without seeds and entirely without the aid of 

 pollen. We have made several unsuccessful efforts to 

 grow Medium Green (Nichols Medium Green) in the 

 house without pollination. White Spine sets without 

 pollen, apparently. Many gardeners suppose that pol 



View in Cucumber House. 



handsome fruit, ordinarily attaining a length of eighteen 

 or twenty inches. Kenyon (Lord Kenyon's Favorite) is 

 also an excellent smooth, slender sort, of medium length. 

 Edinburgh (Duke of Edinburgh) is a spiny and some, 

 what furrowed variety, attaining a length of twenty to 

 twenty-four inches. We prefer others. Lorne (Marquis 

 of Lorne) is one of the best of the very large sorts. 



The flavor of English cucumbers is somewhat different 

 from that of the common field sorts, the texture being, 

 as a rule, somewhat less breaking. But this is not an 

 evidence of poor quality ; it is simply a different quality, 

 and evidently belongs to these fruits as a class. The 

 English sorts retain their green color longer than the 

 field varieties. They are ordinarily picked before they 



len causes the fruit to grow large at the end, and they 

 therefore aim to produce seedless cucumbers for the 

 double purpose of saving labor and of procuring 

 straighter and more shapely fruit. We have found 

 that it pays to pollinate by hand, if early fruits are de- 

 sired. The early flowers nearly always fail to set if 

 pollen is withheld, but late flowers upon tl^ same plant 

 may set freely with no pollen. 



Enemies. — The most serious enemy with which we^ 

 have had to contend in cucumber forcing is the spotted 

 mite, which feeds upon the under surface of the leaves, 

 destroying the green tissue. We keep it in check by the 

 use of Hughes' fir-tree oil, one-half pint to two gallons 

 of water, applied with a fine syringe or knapsack pump. 



