JShe RURAL NEW-YORKER 
1367 
Chat with a Cucumber Pioneer 
Greenhouse Culture in Massachusetts 
A Vl'TERAX grower.—T he man who has the 
credit of raising the first successful commer¬ 
cial crop of cucumbers under glass, at least in this 
part of the country, is Geo. M. Kendall of Leominster, 
IMass., who has often been termed the veteran “Cu¬ 
cumber King,” by his younger competitors and by 
the commission men. 
BUILDING FOR A SPECIALTY.—“Thirty to 
thirty-five years ago,” said Mr. Ken¬ 
dall, “the Winter cucumber and the 
cucumber house was practically an 
unworked proposition. Dr. .Tabez 
(Fisher, the aged horticulturi.st of 
Fitchburg, was raising a few, but 
hardly in a market way. Dr. Fisher 
ased to go about with a little camel'.s- 
hair brush pollenizing his cucumber 
blossoms. The bees take care of that 
now. but we sometimes practice hand 
l>i)IIenizing a little Avheii the bees do 
not seem to be very active. Ills 
house was poorly fitted for a crop 
needing as much heat and light as 
the cucumber. The wooden sides and 
low benches kept the sun from the 
young plants, and the soil was too 
cold. The result was slow growth 
of the plants, tough, poor quality of 
fruit and light yield. At that time I 
studied out a suitable type of house 
which has been duplicated scores of 
times, and which is still popular. 
The State college asked me for a list 
not long ago of a few of those for 
whom I had supervised the buildings 
of this type, and I sent them 12 
name.s. I made a standing offer of 
$10 to the builder for any improve¬ 
ment or any change which should be 
.iust as good at lower cost. If I 
were building today, and my life 
depended on success with the crop, I 
do not know that I should make any 
special change. A few years after 
my first house was built, I had a 
■‘all from a man in Dixon, li'iui>i-= 
asking me to come out there and 
figure on a cucumber house, offering 
to pay my fare one way. 1 replied 
that when I got there I would be a 
thousand miles from home, and I 
should not like to take that nuieii of 
a walk. ‘Come on,’ he wrote, ‘and 
1 will paj’ both ways.’ After I had 
staked out his house, I happened to 
see in the local market a box of cu¬ 
cumbers that looked like mine. In 
those days everybody else packed 
cukes in bushel baskets, which were 
sold for $1 extra to be rebated on 
return of the basket. Sure enough, 
in the bottom of the box was one of 
my cards. The cukes had come from 
my New York commission man 
through a Chicago dealer. By this 
time there was a group of local gar¬ 
deners gathered around the box and 
greatly interested. The final result 
was that eight of this type of houses ' 
were put up in the town. It looked 
as if I might have arranged the pres¬ 
ence of that box of cucumbers, but 1 
was as much surprised as anybody 
to .see them that far from home.’’ 
TYPE OF IIOU.se.—T he Kendall 
house in its main features is com¬ 
mon in the Winter cucumber section, 
20 to 7.5 miles from Boston. They 
are even span, steel or wooden frame, 
with glass to the ground on all sides, 
and the plants are grown on some 
kind of a bench system. Mr. Ken¬ 
dall’s longest house has a wide bench 
around the sides with hot-water heating pipes 
Iieneath, Through the middle is a wide, raised 
bed, and the walk leads around the house between 
the bench and the central bed. This plan gives all 
jiossible sunlight to the crop from start to finish, 
and allows a high degree of contrc*! of soil moisture 
and heat. 
VARIETY OF CUCUMBER.—The variety is 
a selected strain of the White Spine. “All depends 
on getting a good strain of cucumber.” declared 
Mr. Kendall, “I once paid $5 for a seed '’ucumler, 
but it was one of my best investinents. It gave me 
about 250 seeds. I raised and fruited them practic¬ 
ally all. and they came true to tyi)e. It brought 
me hundreds of dollars, and the returns kept coming 
back to me over and over. Good stock is uorrh as 
much as the house it grows in; for the house is no 
good without good plants. But the stock mustn't 
be bred down too fine. You have noticed some¬ 
times in human stock how two families of the old 
stock will unite and the children hre not equal to 
the parents, or tliere is a fool in the family, or ma.v- 
be there are no cliildreu. Once, when 1 had selected 
and inbred my cucumbers until I thought 1 had a 
House of Late Winter and Spring Cucumber. Fig. 639 
Case Tractor Hauling Mower. Fig. 640 
Moline Universal Tractor with Mower Attachment- Fig. 641 
perfect type, the final result was a whole house ot 
rank vines, but I couldn’t find a cucumber in it. 
I offered m.v boy a dollar if he could find any, and 
he managed to find just one; a misshapen, worth¬ 
less specimen, like a fool in the human family. 1 
bought some new seed that cost only 75 cents and 
had one of the heaviest crops 1 ever raised. There 
was a strain of wild blood in them, showing in a 
number of fuzzy-backs and black ’White Spines’. 
I found that I must breed for vigor as well as for 
type.” 
.‘STARTING THE PLANTS.—The system is that 
commonly followed in the bench type of house. 
I 111 III s are siarieu in pocs ana transpiantea in pairs, 
four feet space between each pair, and trained on 
twine or on galvanized wires one foot apart, ex¬ 
tending one above the other up the side and over¬ 
head. Manure is placed beneath the rows and then 
soil with more manure forked into it. Water is 
applied freely during the growth of the crop, and the 
soil is kept free of insect pests by sterilizing it 
yearly. The soil of the first section is shoveled 
off and taken to the other end of the bench. Perfor¬ 
ated steam pipes are laid down in the cleared-otl 
section and the soil of the next sec¬ 
tion shoveled over them. Then the 
steam is turned on. The shifting and 
steaming is repeated in each .section 
until the last is reached, and the soil 
taken from the first section is filhal 
into the last section, completing the 
work. No spraying is considered nee- 
es.sjiry^ as the glass house is common¬ 
ly free from the diseases of the field 
<‘rop. although experience in this re¬ 
spect differs in the various cucumbin* 
sections. 
It must have needed good courage, 
Mr. Kendall, for a pioneer to put a 
lot of money into a cucumber house 
and crop?” 
“Yes: it takes nerve to try an.v- 
thiug that nobody eLse, so far as one 
knows, has tried before. I shall 
never forget my first crop of Fall 
hothouse cucumbers. Huch a thing 
was unknown in the city markets. 
I figured on it myself and then Avent 
to Boston and talked it over with 
file leading commission men. They 
laughed at me. ‘The consumers want 
to rest a month or two before the.v 
eat any more cucumbers.’ they .said. 
In New York the.A' told me the same 
things. ’It won’t do.’ they insisted. 
But I decided to try it. 1 started the 
plants in August and the crop came 
along the first of October Avhen field 
cucumbers were .50 cents a bushel. I 
shipped four boxes to a New Yorh 
commission hou.se with instructions 
not to sell below $12.50 a box. They 
wired back that it couldn’t be done. 
‘Hold them for that price, if you have 
to dump them.’ I replied. The next 
week there was a frost, outdoor cu¬ 
cumbers stoppeil, and in a day or 
two came the check for .$.50 for the 
four boxes of my New York ship¬ 
ment. The price of cucumbers Avent 
up to 25 cents each, and the crop in 
that hou.se brought me $2,500. Next 
3 'ear it seemed everybod.v had Fall 
cucumbers, and the market Avas down 
to three cents.” 
BENCHES .VND HE.VTING.— 
While the bench type of house is a 
favorite, especially for the early and 
middle Winter crop, other methods 
are in u.se. A few miles aAA'aj'. 
Charles Heslam raises cucumbers on 
the natural ground level, in the way 
Uie Spring crop is grown bj’ the 
gardeners close to Boston, following 
their lettuce crop.s. But around the 
inside of the Heslam houses, next 
to the glass, tliere is a deep cemented 
Avalk Avide enough for the return hot 
Avater pipes, and in this way much ot 
the outside cold and moisture is cut 
off from the soil of the house. Bot¬ 
tom heat is supplied by two feet of 
stable manure under each row, and 
more manure is applied to the surface 
as a fertilizing mulch. “This plan 
is all right for the late Winter or 
Spring crops,” explained Mr. He.slam. 
‘•It is about like the system folloAved 
by the Boston groAvers. Avho mostlj’ 
raise lettuce in Winter and cucumbers in Spring. 
P>ut 1 would not risk it for the early Winter crop 
in the short days. The bottom heat from tlie manure 
Avould soon cool off, the cold soil Avater Avould Avork 
upAvard, and the plant avouUI get cold feet. When 
the heat goes doAvn, Ave .get .stem-rot and other 
troubles. We notice it near the doors Avliere the 
cold air comes in Avhen the door is opened. In 
BaldAvinsville, Avhich is about the only place Avhere 
they rai.se much of the early Winter crop, they do 
it on benches Avith hot pipes underneath, giving 
more complete control of heat and moisture. For our 
crop, we start the young plants about Feb. 1. About 
