Crops for Pickling and Preserving. 
723 
crop is a most uncertain one, even if it rnns the gauntlet of the 
attacks just mentioned, and the yield is difficult to determine ; 
but a good result would be 80 barrels per acre, the barrel 
weighing about 3^ cwt. When disposing of the produce the 
larger cucumbers are picked and sold for consumption as vege- 
tables. The " chumps " (coarsely shaped cucumbers) and 
seconds are brined and used for making into mixed pickles, 
being sliced after brining. The smallest and neatest shaped ones 
are picked to be sold as gherkins, but the quantity of gherkins 
brined in England is small, those specially grown for the 
purpose in France being much preferred. The brining is a very 
simple process, nothing being done beyond washing the cu- 
cumbers before putting them into brine. 
Vegetable marrows are occasionally used for pickling at times 
when cucumbers are scarce, and they make veiy good substitutes. 
They are hardier than cucumbers, and the yield is very great. 
The market, however, is uncertain, and frequently they are quite 
unsaleable. In year3 of great scarcity of fruit they are used by 
manufacturers of inferior jams and marmalade to make syrup 
for jams, and this sometimes causes the price to be remunera- 
tive. The cultivation is practically the same as for cucumbers, 
the most popular varieties being the Long Yellow, the Bush 
Yellow, and the Bush • Green. They are not uncommonly 
planted on dung-heaps and compost-heaps, where they grow 
immense crops ; and they are all very useful for planting in odd 
corners and similar places not convenient for growing other 
crops. The small marrows are brined in the same manner as 
cucumbers. 
No other vegetables are brined, but those that have been 
discussed are the ones that demand the greatest attention from 
the grower, as the other varieties are worked up by the pickle 
manufacturers, who get the whole, of the profit of pickling, 
whereas the grower gets a portion of the profit of manufactu- 
ring on those which are brined by him. 
Crops for Pickling. 
Bed Cabbages. — The next class to consider is that in which 
the vegetables are pickled without undergoing the process of 
brining. Of these, red cabbages are the most important. 
The red cabbage is an extremely hardy plant, which can be 
grown on almost all soils, provided sufficient manure be ap- 
plied. All cabbages are hungry feeders, and large quantities of 
nitrogenous manures can be put on with much advantage, 
and without risk of injury, for it is almost impossible to over- 
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