Cucumber 
(French, CONCOMBRE; Italian, CETRIOLA; Spanish, COHOMBRO; 
Danish; AGIJRK: German , GURKEN) 
ucumbers are botanically classified as Cucumis Sativus. They are believed to 
have come, originally, from Asia and Egypt. Its culture is indicated from historical 
data as more than 3000 years. They were known to the ancient Greeks and Romans 
and mention is made of their forced culture in early times. The Emperor Tiberius 
had cucumbers at his table every day in the year, Columbus grew them at Haiti in 
1494 and in 1535, Jacques Cartier found “very great cucumbers” grown by the Indians 
near what is now Montreal. They are now widely cultivated in nearly every part of 
the temperate zones. 
Cucumbers require a rather rich, moist, warm soil and are quite sensitive to 
weather conditions, insects and diseases. 
The States in which cucumbers are grown in the order of their yields are about 
as follows: Michigan, Wisconsin, California, Indiana, Colorado, Minnesota, Ohio, 
Iowa, New York and Illinois. The leading seed producing areas are in the States 
of Colorado, Michigan and California. The annual production of seed in the United 
States is about one million pounds and the average yield per acre is about 250 pounds. 
It requires from 40 to 45 fruits to yield a pound of seed. There is an average of 
about 300 seeds per fruit in the standard varieties. The seed usually retain a satis¬ 
factory germination for at least five years when properly stored. 
Some progress has been made in the development of disease resistance in cucum¬ 
ber and breeding work of considerable importance has been conducted for the im¬ 
provement of purity. Efforts are now being made to develop strains that are immune 
to mosaic, curly top and other common troubles. (See Plant Breeding.) 
Pickling blends have met with success in some cases and are so used by certain of 
the pickling houses. The common practice is to make a mechanical mixture of seed 
to include about 80% of the most desirable variety with about 10% each of two simi¬ 
lar kinds. This combination gives some variation in type of pickles which covers the 
need of the various sizes required for packing. Further, it is believed that cross 
pollination between unrelated kinds tends to increase the yield of fruits and to pro- 
EIGHT 
