In raising cucumbers care should be taken to procure seed that
is perfectly pure, as it mixes readily with other varieties and
deteriorates rapidly. The seed should be planted in hills, prepared in
the manner described for cantaloupes, three feet apart in the row, and
the rows 4½ to 5 feet apart. If there is not enough compost at hand
to manure them, as directed in the manner of making them, the hills
can be raked up a few inches above the surface and the young plants
allowed to feed on the general dressing which has been applied to the
whole garden; the elevation serving to give the young plants a better
start than on the level surface. While the cucumber is a lover of heat
and moisture, it is apt to damp off in its early stages if it should
be cold and wet; the hills tending to lift the young plants up into a
drier and warmer soil. A liberal quantity of seed should be sown in
each hill, say twenty to forty seeds, that there may be enough young
plants to survive the depredations of the striped cucumber bug and of
the borers. The young plants should be dusted every few mornings with
ashes, plaster or slug shot, to destroy these pests, and as soon as the
plants are sufficiently large to take care of themselves they should
be thinned out to only three or four plants in a hill. The first
planting should not be made before the middle of May, for they will
not stand cold. The cucumbers should be picked as soon as they attain
sufficient size and before the seeds become developed or hard; this
should be done every morning while it is still cool, and the cucumbers
placed in a cool cellar. The very best way is to put them in the water
in a cool spring-house; there is no place where melons, squashes and
cucumbers retain their freshness and crisp, fine flavor so fully as
in such a spring. If the picking is carefully attended to and all the
fruit picked off as soon as large enough, the vines will continue to
grow and bear all summer, especially if they are in a rather shady
situation, such as among the sweet corn. A few fine specimens may be
allowed to ripen for seed, but if many are left the vines will dry
up and die as soon as they have ripened a crop. Where a quantity of
small pickles are wanted, the best way is to make a planting about the
first week in August or latter part of July. These will produce large
quantities if the ground is rich, and will continue to bear until
killed by frost. Like the summer crop, they should be picked every day
or two, and as soon as they are of the size desired, as they will bear
a great many more if not allowed to grow large; also the smaller the
pickle the more attractive it is, and the more readily it sells.