There are quite a number of varieties. But a few only deserve attention.
The best, for all uses, is the Early Cluster, a great bearer of firm,
tender, brittle fruit. Early Frame, Long White, Turkey, and Long Green
Turkey, are rather beautiful, but not prolific varieties. Long Prickly,
is very good for pickles, and fills a cask rapidly, but is by no means
so pleasant as the Early Cluster. The Short Prickly and White Spined are
considerably used. The West India or small Gherkin is used only for
pickling, and is considered fine. But we regard all these inferior to
the Early Cluster.
_Soil_ should be made very rich with compost and vegetable mould, with a
liberal application of sand. All vines do better in a sandy soil. Plant
in the open air only after the weather has become quite warm. An effort
to get early cucumbers by early out-door planting is usually a failure;
seeds decay, or having come up, after a long while, they grow slowly,
and vines and fruit are apt to be imperfect. Six feet apart, each way,
is the best distance; and after the plants get out of the way of
insects, and become well established, two vines in each hill is better
than more: the fruit will be better and more abundant, and they will
bear much longer than when vines are left to grow very thick. They need
water in dry weather (see Watering). The first week in July is the best
time to plant for pickling. In a warm, dry climate, cucumbers do better
a little shaded, but not too much. Planted among young fruit-trees, or
in alternate rows with corn, they do well. If allowed to run up bushes
like peas, they produce more and better fruit. Forcing for an early crop
is often done, by digging a hole in the ground, two feet deep and two
feet square, and filling with hot manure, stamped down well, and covered
with six inches of fine mould. Put around a frame and cover with glass,
at an angle of thirty-five degrees to the sun. Plant one hundred seeds
on the two feet square; when they come up, put two plants in a pot, set
in a regular hotbed, and keep well watered and aired until the weather
be warm enough to transplant in the open air; then remove from the pots
without breaking the ball of earth, and plant six feet apart. Four
plants left in the original hill will bear earlier than those that have
been removed. To get a large quantity of very early ones, plant a
corresponding number of hills, with the two feet of manure, as above;
whenever the weather becomes hot, they will need to be well watered, or
they will dry up. All cucumber-plants forced should have the main runner
cut off, after the second rough leaf appears; this brings fruit earlier
and twice as abundant. On transplanting cucumbers, or any other vines,
cover them wholly from the sun for three days, or, if the weather be
dry, for a whole week. We once thought melons and cucumbers very
difficult to transplant successfully; but we ascertained the only
difficulty to be, the want of sufficient water and shade. When roots and
soil were so dry that the dirt all fell off, we have transplanted with
perfect success; but for a week the plants appeared to be ruined. We
kept them covered and well watered, and they revived and made a great
crop, much earlier than seeds planted at the same time. Protection of
plants from insects has been a subject of much study and many
experiments. Ashes and lime, and various decoctions and offensive
mixtures, have been recommended. We discard them all, as both
troublesome and ineffectual. Our experience is, most decidedly, in favor
of fencing each hill, of all vines, to keep off insects. A box a foot
square and fifteen inches high, the lower edge set in the soil, will
usually prove effectual. Put over a pane of glass, and it will be more
sure, and increase the warmth and consequently the growth of the plants.
Put millinet over the boxes, instead of glass, and not a hill will be
lost. If a cutworm chances to be fenced in, he will show himself by
cutting off a plant. Search him out and kill him, and all will be safe.
Such boxes, well taken care of, will last for ten years. This, then, is
a cheap as well as effectual method.
Cucumbers are a cooling, healthy article of diet, used in reasonable
quantities. They should be sliced into cold water, taken out, and put in
sharp vinegar with pepper and salt. Ripe cucumbers make one of the best
of pickles: for directions in making, we refer to the cook-books. If you
have room near your back door for one large hill of cucumbers, you may
obtain a remarkable growth. Dig down deep enough to set in an old
barrel, with head and bottom out, leaving the top even with the surface.
Fill with manure from the stable, well trod down. In fine rich mould,
around on the outside of the barrel, plant twenty or thirty
cucumber-seeds. Put a pail of water in the barrel every day. The water
comes up through the soil to the roots of the plants, bringing with it
the stimulus of the manure, and the effect is wonderful. A large barrel
has been filled with pickles from one such hill. If bushes be put up to
support the vines, it is still better. Neglect to pour in water, and
they will dry up; but continue to water them, and they will bear till
frost in autumn.