1874.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
^63 
placed od his farm free of cost, he would make 
a very poor business of it; he might sell a few 
at the stores where he traded, but he would 
meet with no general sale. The person who 
put up the pickles he saw at the store has been 
for years in building up a reputation, so that 
his name upon an article sells it at once; then 
he has his factory at a commercial center from 
which radiate the channels through which 
merchandise passes out to the consumer. He 
has sufficient capital to allow him to carry a 
whole year’s stock, and buildings large enough 
to contain it, and the sum invested in cucum¬ 
bers and other vegetables to be pickled is but a 
small share of the whole. In this as in many 
other cases, it is not easy for the producer of 
the raw material to manufacture it for market. 
While we would encourage every one to do 
that which will make his farm more produc¬ 
tive, we do not think that pickle-making or 
fruit-canning can as a general thing be made 
profitable on ordinary farms, on account of the 
capital and skilled labor required. In fact the 
production of the raw material, and the prepar¬ 
ing of it as a finished product for market, are 
two distinct kinds of business, either of which 
requires the whole energies of the person who 
engages in it. The growing of cucumbers 
forms a legitimate part of a farmer’s or garden¬ 
er’s business, and when he is within easy reach 
of a factory where he can deliver his cucumbers 
fresh, or is able to put them up in salt for the 
market, it is often a profitable one. Any good 
land will produce a crop of pickles, but the 
hills must be enriched with fine manure. Mark 
out the land about five feet each way and at 
the intersections spade in a shovelful of manure 
to mix it well with the soil. The seed is usu¬ 
ally put in the last week in June or the first 
week in July. Where small pickles are in de¬ 
mand the Early Cluster will give the best re¬ 
sults; if large ones are wanted, the White 
Spine may be sown. The Long Green Prickly, 
while it produces a fruit long in proportion to 
its thickness, is such a poor bearer that grow¬ 
ers generally discard it. Indeed those who 
make a specialty of this crop raise their own 
seeds and are very particular in the selection 
of the plants to furnish them. By careful se¬ 
lection for a few years each grower establishes 
a strain which he thinks better than any other 
and of which he is very choice. An abundance 
of seed is sown in each hill to guard against ac¬ 
cidents ; although insects do not so trouble the 
young to the extent that they do earlier, it is 
well to have air-slaked lime at hand to check 
them in case they are destructive. The ground 
is to be kept clean by the use of the cultivator 
and hoe, and when the plants show two or 
three rough leaves, thin them to leave three or 
four of the strongest to the hill. Some grow¬ 
ers sow round turnips at the last hoeing and 
thus get a double crop from the land. In case 
the cucumbers are supplied to a factory there 
should be an understanding beforehand as to 
sizes; the usual size is four inches, but for cer¬ 
tain purposes they are required smaller than 
this. Much of the success of the crop depends 
upon the picking; if a vine is allowed to ripen 
the first fruit it sets, it will produce but little 
after that. There should be force enough to go 
over the vines every other day, and the pickers 
should be taught to pick not only the fruit of 
the required size, but everything that has grown 
beyond that, in order to keep the plants up to 
their full productiveness. The cucumbers 
must always be cut and never pulled, not only 
for the safety of the vines, but because those 
with stems are more salable. Picking is usually 
done by women and children, who are paid by 
the thousand a price which varies with the lo¬ 
cality from twenty-five to forty cents. The 
pickers should be careful not to tread upon the 
vines. The delivery at the factory may be 
made at such times as may be agreed upon, as 
if not in such large masses as to heat the cu¬ 
cumbers will be in good condition for several 
days. Those who send their pickles to market 
salted follow different methods. One of our 
friends who was formerly largely engaged dur¬ 
ing the war in supplying the southwestern 
markets put up his cucumbers in the following 
manner. New barrels were used, and one 
head being removed, the barrel was filled as 
full as possible by shaking, about half a peck 
of salt added and the head put in place. The 
barrels were then filled quite full of water 
through the bunghole, and then bunged up 
tightly. He stated that as they were sold by 
the barrel and not by count, it was a profitable 
business for him. It is probable that in tightly 
closed barrels the pickles would keep for some 
months in this weak brine; at that time the ar¬ 
ticle met with a ready sale, and our friend 
never heard any complaint of their spoiling. 
Mr. Waldo F. Brown, a well-known Ohio 
seed-grower, in his “ Farm Quarterly ” for 
April gives his method of salting cucumbers as 
follows: “ Cover the bottom of your barrel 
with salt, then pour in a bushel of pickles, 
then sprinkle three or four quarts of salt, and 
so on till the barrel is full. In twenty-four 
hours you will find the barrel only two thirds 
full, and the brine at the top of the pickles; 
then fill again, and perhaps a third time, and 
when full put on a loose-fitting cover and a 
weight to keep it under brine, and nothing 
more is necessary except to see that the brine 
does not settle so as to leave them bare, in 
which case make strong brine and refill. Many 
make brine and pour over them; but by my 
plan nearly one third more pickles can be put 
in the same space, and I think the pickles are 
better for drawing the juice out of them, and 
if salt enough is used they will keep indefinitely. 
I have kept them over the second summer in 
fine condition. A forty-gallon barrel will hold 
about three thousand pickles, if salted as I di¬ 
rect, and with a little experience a man can 
count and pack four thousand an hour.” 
--- ---««B---->-»- 
"Ferns and Fern Collecting. 
Taken as a whole, few plants present a 
greater variety of graceful outlines than do our 
native ferns. Those who go from cities for 
their summer vacation are quite sure to be at¬ 
tracted by the ferns, and as they have seen 
other ferns cultivated in cases and in green¬ 
houses, they set to work to gather the roots of 
these to take home for the decoration of their 
rooms during winter. Ladies, and sometimes 
gentlemen too, make excursions to the hills and 
valleys in search of these plants; the roots are 
carefully placed in boxes and watered and 
shaded until the time for the return, and on the 
journey home the parcels are taken by the col¬ 
lector’s own hand, as something too precious 
to be risked with the baggage. At length the 
plants find their place in the fernery, and are 
watched with much interest. They perhaps do 
not look very well, but that may be on account 
of the journey. As cool weather comes on the 
ferns look worse, and are given more heat. A 
still worse condition suggests that they should 
be kept cooler, or have more air, or more or 
less light; but with all the changes they go | 
backward, and by Christmas the probabilities 
are that not a green frond is to be seen. This 
want of success is ascribed to improper soil, 
too much or too little water, or to any cause 
but the right one—a want of knowledge of the 
plants themselves. The fact is that the great 
majority of our ferns are deciduous, and when 
taken home at the end of summer no treatment 
whatever will make them flourish; they have 
completed their career, and must have rest 
until the next season. These deciduous ferns, 
graceful and delicate as they are, will not an¬ 
swer for house-culture; we have a few ever¬ 
green ones, readily distinguished by the firm¬ 
ness and persistence of their fronds, which will 
do admirably; but with the exception of these, 
if we would fill up a fernery, we must depend 
upon the exotic species furnished by the 
florists. Still we would not discourage the 
collecting of native ferns, for much enjoyment 
may be had from their cultivation, only it must 
be for the most part out-doors rather than in 
the house. There are but few city yards that 
do not furnish a shady corner which will allow 
of a small fernery, and some stones should be 
arranged to form a little rock-work on which 
many kinds will grow that would not flourish 
in the border. Some ferns seem to need the 
protection the stones afford to their roots. 
Upon such a small scale no very picturesque 
rock-work can be achieved; the best that can 
be done is to imitate some rocky hill-side with 
crevices between the rocks which are filled 
with earth, which extends down to and is 
in connection with the soil of the border. This 
precaution must be observed in making a rock- 
work of any kind, large or small, for a ferns or 
any other plants, for if the earth is in mere 
pockets it will soon dry out, and as no supply 
of moisture can come up from below the plants 
will in a dry time be sure to perish. To those 
fond of ferns there is every encouragement for 
them to attempt their cultivation in the manner 
here stated, and we have seen several ferneries 
in city yards which possessed much interest, 
the plants having been accumulated during 
successive summer excursions. In collecting 
ferns, it would be better to remove them in 
early spring, just as they are starting into vege¬ 
tation. But while this is practicable to those 
who live in the country, those who live in cities 
must take them just as they are in the height 
of their growth or not at all. In this case, the 
best thing to do, after having secured a good 
clump of roots, is to cut away all the fronds, 
provided the plant is one of the large kind. If 
considerable time must elapse between the time 
of gathering the plants and that of taking them 
home, it will be best to set them closely toge¬ 
ther in a box in which some woods-eartli has 
been placed. Put the plants in a shady place, 
and sprinkle as often as may be needed to 
prevent them from drying out, yet they should 
not be too wet at the roots. In setting the 
ferns out, as near [an approach as possible 
should be made to the natural localities of the 
’plants. Those found upon rocks should have 
a place on the rock-work; those that were col¬ 
lected along the edges of thickets and by road¬ 
sides will make themselves at home in the bor¬ 
der; and the “Ostrich Fern,” which grows in 
rich, moist soils, and the “Flowering Ferns,” 
which come from the margins of swamps, may 
have a place to which water can be conducted 
to keep up the proper moisture. The great 
trouble the town cultivator will encounter will 
be the soil. Very often that in the yard is of 
the poorest kind, and mixed with builder’s rub¬ 
bish. For some species it will be absolutely 
