286 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ Apiil 14, 1837. 
hicli are tabulated *in the present analysis, but which did not find a 
place in the one which appeared in the Journal about this time last 
year.—E. M., Birkhamstcd 
CUCUMBER CULTIVATION. 
The cultivation of the Cucumber outdoors is largely practised 
on the silicious and oolitic soils of Bedfordshire and Huntingdon¬ 
shire, Sandy and Biggleswade in the former, and St. Neots in the 
latter county being the centres. The cultivation of the Cucumber is 
practised in those localities without any artificial heat whatever. 
The seed is sown in early May—mean temperature 531°, June C>0°, 
July G3°, August Gl°, September 5G°, which allows through the 
whole period of a safe minimum or decline on the mean of 15°, but 
the temperature sometimes suffers a considerably greater decline in 
May, early June, and late September, when the plants are more or 
less injured or destroyed by frost. In the silicious soil the seed 
is in a more favourable medium for vegetation than in soils of 
closer texture ; it will be sooner heated than clay, alluvial, or 
moisture-holding soil, in fact much warmer at the surface than 
lower down, and as the season advances and the heat increases the 
soil is warmed as the roots grow, so that in open air culture we 
treat the Cucumber in precisely the same manner as if it were 
indigenous. For outdoor culture varieties succeeding in a mean 
temperature of 60° (the mean of our climate from the middle of 
May to the middle of September inclusive) are selected, and for 
artificial cultivation those that grow in a mean of 70° in winter and 
75° in summer. We therefore get outdoor Cucumbers with a mean 
of G0°, winter fruit with a mean of 70°, and summer fruit with a 
mean of 75°, a difference equal to the maximum or minimum range— 
viz., 15°. Is not this highly suggestive ? The Ridge Cucumber 
has been so acclimatised as to succeed in a country with a mean 
summer heat of GO 3 . Is not the Ridge Cucumber identical, and as 
little changed as when grown in frames heated with dung, and 
covered with talc by the Romans ? Certainly it is similar to those 
treated as Ridge and grown in oiled paper or canvas-covered frames 
a century ago by Abercombie. Efforts at improvement have in¬ 
duced tenderness in a much enlarged plant and fruit. Much is 
clearly due to variety, and is alluded to as suggestive of a wide 
field of exercise to the cross-fertiliser with a view to improvement 
of the fruit of the Ridge Cucumber, and implanting some of the 
hardiness of that in the frame varieties. 
Then, in respect of soil, manure is applied in quantity to the 
silicious soil, the silica attracts the heat, the manure absorbs and 
retains moisture, humus, or nitrogenous matter for sustaining the 
vigour of the plants under powerful sun, the Vine is strengthened 
by the silica. In frames moisture and humus is present in the fer¬ 
menting beds, silica or lime is not clearly patent, and the plants 
gum, gangrene, and collapse without assignable cause. In houses 
moisture is sought in soils having retentive power—peat, loamy 
turf-decomposing food evolving matter, and the plants sometimes 
collapse suddenly—their tissues full of fungus threads and spores. 
It is a cultural defect—want of silica and lime in the structure of 
the "Vine—therefore old mortar rubbish containing both silica and 
lime in the carbonate state is added to the soil and manure avoided, 
food being supplied in surface dressings or in liquid form. 
Light is essential for the elaboration and assimilation of the 
sap. The higher the cultivation the greater need of the foliage 
having full exposure. Under artificial heat growth is effected inde¬ 
pendent of the weather. In dull cloudy wet weather—mnfavourable 
alike to evaporation and assimilation—the plants grow most, the 
temperature being favourable, and the foliage flags upon a return 
of bright weather (even outdoors), it not being adapted for bearing 
the full force of the sun’s rays, and the light needs modifying by 
shading, gradually diminished as the plants from the solidification 
of the growth become hardened. The foliage of the Cucumber 
evaporates much moisture when growing in the open air or naturally 
and the plants are invariably healthy, at least as long as the evapo¬ 
ration conditions continue, but a period of dull wet weather so 
impedes evaporation that the plants become unhealthy. Artificially 
we cause evaporation by ventilation or a dry atmosphere, and so 
secure a sturdy healthy growth, by keeping the house close and moist 
so that evaporation is arrested the plants become unhealthy. Cu¬ 
cumbers do not require any air, some may say. I know they are 
grown well without air as it obtains on the orthodox system, and it 
needs no saying that Cucumbers.have been grown the past thirty 
years and longer with scarcely any ventilation from September 
to April. I have seen examples of Cucumber growing without air 
through the hottest months of the year, and I have seen a house 
lOfi feet long and 14 feet wide both sides of the span-roof hung 
with fruit. The only danger is from the sun scorching. The 
foliage lacks solidity, it is the same in texture as plants which in a 
dull period have not had air, soft and incapable of withstanding 
sun. The danger of scorching is not in the morning but in the 
afternoon, through the leaves not having evaporated sufficiently 
through the day ; they are gorged with moisture and are scalded, a thing 
practically unknown at that period of the day under the ventilation 
system. When scorching occurs on the ventilation principle it is in 
the early part of the day—the atmosphere having been kept close, 
stagnant, and laden with moisture. The ventilation system is 
Nature’s plan ; moisture at night for absorption, its dissipation by 
the sun’s influence for effecting elaboration and assimilation; the 
non-ventilating system is moisture in the daytime to keep back 
evaporation and secure growth of fruit, consequently the foliage is 
overladen with moisture in the afternoon, and the sun acting upon 
it in that condition causes it to be scalded. We get a maximum of 
growth of fruit by the non-ventilating system, and quality (as 
we accept it in other fruit) is not of consequence ; in fact, the less 
flavour a Cucumber has the better it is liked. It is sufficient if the 
fruit be fine, short necked, of good colour and bloom, straight and 
long, and grown quickly so as to be crisp and tender. 
MODES OF CULTURE. 
Cucumbers are grown in four ways. 1, In houses or pits heated 
by hot-water pipes, with bottom heat by those solely, or a combina¬ 
tion of fermenting materials. 2, In pits or frames heated with 
fermenting materials. 3, In houses, pits, or frames without artificial 
heat. 4, In the open air. The first-named is far the most important 
from a cultural point of view. I will treat of them in that order. 
1, Houses or pits heated by hot-water and having bottom heat. 
These are usually employed for supplying fruit from October to 
May inclusive, being defined as autumn, winter, and spring fruiters 
respectively, the autumn fruiters giving fruit up to Christmas, or 
until the winter fruiters take up and continue the supply, and the 
spring fruiters continue the supply from April. 
The House ok Pit. —I think the span-roofed house is the most 
suitable. A lean-to has its advantages in the dull murky weather 
prevailing from November to February, but they are disadvantageous 
at other times of the year, therefore I give preference to the span- 
roof for all seasons, with the ends of the structure north and south. 
The side walls 4 feet G inches high above the floor level, 9 inches 
thick, except the top four courses on the outside, which should be 
44 inches built in cement. Side lights are not necessary. Venti¬ 
lators 2 feet by 12 inches should be fixed in the side walls under 
the wall plates, one in the centre of each light when the width is 
14 feet, and every other light when the width is 10 feet, the lights 
to be 4 feet or 4 feet G inches wide. A pathway 2 feet 9 inches 
wide should be allowed. The walls for forming the sides of the 
beds 44 inches and 3 feet high above the floor, the top course built 
in cement or having a stone capping. This will give beds in a 
house 14 feet wide of 4 feet G inches width, and in a pit of 10 feet 
width of 2 feet G inches. The height in tbe centre of the 14-feet 
house must be 8 feet 6 inches, and in the 10-feet 7 feet G inches to 
the under side of the rafters. Every alternate light of the roof 
should be moveable, available alike for ventilation or removeable for 
handiness of getting in soil and vice versa. At the apex should be 
a lantern ventilator with a 12 inches wide opening, and raising 
64 inches for the larger house, and 9 inches wide, and lifting 5 inches 
for the pit. The rafters and light bars should be provided with 
drip-proof grooves. A trellis will be necessary fixed 12 inches to 
15 inches from the glass. No. 10 galvanised wires supported by 
stays at every rafter so as to be 7j inches apart are best. The 
wider house will require six rows of 4-inch pipes for top heat. 
Two rows may be fixed on the ledge of the side walls, one above 
the other, and a row on each of the bed walls. The latter should 
have evaporation troughs. Six rows of 4-inch pipes will be required 
for bottom heat, three rows in each bed. In the smaller house or 
pit four rows of pipes w r ill be required for top heat, all 4-inch, one 
row on the ledge of the side walls and one on the bed edges, these 
being provided wdth evaporation troughs. Four rows of 3-inch 
pipes will be required for bottom heat, two in each bed. Fix the 
pipes for bottom heat on the flat, dividing the distance equally, and 
they should be fixed so that their upper side is 18 inches below the 
level of the bed edge, so that they can either be covered and sur¬ 
rounded with rubble or with flags or slates so as to form a chamber. 
The heating must be so arranged by means of valves that the 
bottom heat can be worked separately or together. If fermenting 
materials are to be used for bottom heat the beds must be deepened 
for tan to 3 feet and for Raves and dung to 4 feet, in addition to 
the foot depth required for soil. Sometimes hot-water pipes are 
employed in addition to the fermenting materials, in that case two 
rows in the 4 feet 6 inches wide beds, and one row in the 2 feet 
6 inches wide beds are sufficient, and should be fixed 18 inches from 
the intended surface of the beds. 
Varieties. —There is plenty of choice and there is no great 
difference, therefore if any are omitted it is not because they are bad,but 
because a moderate number of varieties is better to select from than 
