144 THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN’S COMPANION, December 2, I85G. 
CUCUMBERS, THEIR FAILURES AND 
DISEASES. 
The statement of a case by “ J. C. W., alluded to in 
another page, seems to furnish a good opportunity for 
alluding to a number of inquiries on this vexed subject 
in one article. 
I do not profess to be able to tell bow to cure and 
conquer the various maladies to which the Cucumber 
race has lately been subject. I can only mention, as 
nearly as possible, the circumstances in which I have been 
troubled with disease, and other circumstances in which 
I have been next to completely free from it. I have had so 
often to dismount from a hobby-horse theory, which at 
the time seemed satisfactory enough, but was set adrift 
by future facts and experiments, that I should not like 
to say that in the circumstances referred to there were 
really cause and effect, being afraid that the future 
might show me there was merely a coincidence, the 
return of which was next to accidental. Whether, how¬ 
ever, merely coincidence, or cause and consequence, 
there can be no harm done in mentioning some of the 
circumstances. 
There is some difficulty in attempting to meet the 
complaints of the sufferers by Cucumber disease, merely 
because we are left in ignorance of the form in which it 
presents itself. There is the disease first attacking the 
roots in excrescences, as described by Mr. Bailey, of 
Nuneham, of which I have had little experience; there 
is the drying and shrivelling disease, so well described 
by Mr. Ayres in The Gardeners’ Chronicle for 1855, page 
741, and which I have frequently seen, though, in some 
few cases, it seemed to be the consequence of accident or 
neglect as much as of disease; there is the yellowing 
and rotting of young fruit at their points, refusing to 
keep healthy, or to swell and grow, though the foliage 
be healthy, which some call “ the disease ;” and lastly, for 
the present, there is the festering disease, in which a 
nasty, gummy matter exudes from fruit and stems, the 
most ugly and disagreeable of all the diseases. If one 
of our great men would only give a name to each of 
these diseases or forms of disease, if there would not 
be less difficulty, there would, at least, he less confusion. 
Now, if the Cucumbers of our correspondent, “J. 
C. W.,” have got the disease, it is the drying up and 
shrivelling manifestation of it. His Cucumber-house is 
everything that could be wished for, forty-five feet long, 
twelve feet wide, eight feet at back, three feet and a half 
at front, a liot-water tank along the centre, a pit over it, 
eighteen inches deep by four feet wide ; plants grown to a 
single stem, and then trained to a trellis eleven inches 
from the glass; bottom-heat 75° to 80°, top-heat 65° to 
70°, with a rise from sunshine, plenty of moisture in 
the atmosphere, air carefully given, some left on all 
night, and yet the margins of the leaves shrivel up as if 
scalded, and not merely on sunny days, but even in 
cloudy ones. I have not been so much troubled with 
this form of disease as with the gummy one, though I 
have seen enough of it to verify Mr. Ayres’ description 
of it, namely, the plant first presents a flagging appear¬ 
ance, then the leaves present a speckled appearance, and 
then dry up, and shrivel round their margins. 
I do not propose entering here into the vexed ques¬ 
tion whether this, and the gummy disease likewise, 
are constitutional, or merely induced by a particular 
state of the atmosphere, or encouraged by particular 
treatment, farther than to say that some modes of treat¬ 
ment are, to a certain extent, preventive, if not remedial; 
and, though once seeing much force in the constitu¬ 
tional theory, yet later proofs have led me to doubt its 
correctness, though common prudence would dictate 
the wisdom of propagating only from a healthy stock. 
All who are particularly interested in this form of the 
disease should read the article of Mr. Ayres referred to 
above. He places the chief blame on improper soil, 
in which I cannot agree farther than in reprobating 
with him the using of the same soil again and again 
for Cucumbers, while 1 thoroughly agree with him 
in recommending a limited space for root action—the 
use of well-aired, pure, fresh, fibry, turfy loam, with a 
little leaf-mould from deciduous trees, or very well-de¬ 
composed cowdung. If there would be any difference 
between us here, it would be shown in the season of the 
year, as, when I used to grow Cucumbers in full swing, 
my compost for winter used to be about equal portions 
of such loam, well aired after being heated, to drive 
out everything in the shape of worms, &c., and an 
equal portion of heath-mould, in which worms seldom 
show. In spring I used such loam, with sweet leaf- 
mould, well aired after being dried in a similar man¬ 
ner; and in summer I used similar loam, with a good 
allowance of well-aired, old cowdung. Such composts 
left nothing to he desired. I first learned the im¬ 
portance of limiting the root-space for Cucumbers when 
living under the instructions of Mr. McMurtrie, at 
Thugborough, the seat of the Earl of Lichfield, in Staf¬ 
fordshire. There was a house appropriated to Cucum¬ 
bers, and its producing powers 1 have never seen ex¬ 
ceeded. The Cucumbers did well enough in a wide bed 
grown in the usual way ; but the wonderful results were 
obtained chiefly from narrow boxes and pots set on i 
shelves, &c., and the Vines overhanging the pathway, j 
When practising the same system on my own account, 1 
and as I deemed very successfully, my self-satisfaction 
was sobered down by seeing very fine crops at Chick- 
sands Priory grown in pots by the father of Mr. Ayres, 
and that must be about twenty years ago. Whenever it 
can be acted upon, then, I consider great success and 
freedom from disease to be alike promoted by limiting 
the space for root action, by using a fresh, sweet, and 
rather poor soil, and communicating strength by surface- 
dressings and manure-waterings. So much and so fre¬ 
quently have I top-dressed at times, that I have had 
nearly as much compost, in the long run, above the 
rim of the pot as below it. Cucumbers are not at all 
particular about having what is called their collar 
covered, and somewhat deeply, too, provided it is done 
gradually, and the first top-dressing contains a mass of 
roots before you add a second, and so on. 
Our correspondent, and others presenting similar 
cases, may find in such remarks something that will 
suit them. When the leaves are spotted as well as 
shrivelled at the margins, watering with lime-water, as 
recommended by Mr. Ayres, will be found advantageous, 
especially when there is any organised matter in the 
compost. Syringing with the lime and sulphur so fre¬ 
quently referred to will also be useful. But in many 
cases, where the margins of the leaves are merely 
shrivelled, it is doubtful whether such appearances are 
so much the result of disease as of something amiss in 
our management. Our correspondent does not tell us 
what sort of a compost he used in his four-feet-wide bed. 
It might be none too rich for June, and yet be sadly too 
rich for November and December. The leaves might be 
too soft and gross from an excess of high feeding, while 
a deficiency of sunlight would prevent a corresponding 
fixation of carbon or solid matter, and therefore they 
would feel quickly sudden changes from shade to bright¬ 
ness, and from cold to heat, and from wet to dry; while 
leaves half the size, hard and firm to the touch, would 
pass such ordeals unscathed. Had I such a bed for such 
a wide house in winter, I would at least divide it longi¬ 
tudinally into two. 
Again, nothing is said of the depth of the soil, and if 
there is any and what separation between it and the 
tank, though no roots ought to come within four or five 
inches of it if the surface-soil is to be kept at about 80° ; 
neither are we told what attention is paid to seeing that 
