Corn has so few enemies that it is scarcely worth while to consider them, the principal one being earworm—a small worm that eats out the tip of the ear; they can be poisoned by dropping Paris green in the axils of the leaves when the plants are young.
CUCUMBERS
For slicing for the table should be planted as soon as the ground is warm or a few seed may be planted on pieces of inverted sod, or in pots or paper bands in the hotbed and transplanted into the open ground about corn-planting time or when the danger of frost is past; this will give several weeks' start on outdoor planting and will also make the plants practically immune from attacks of the striped beetle. Beetles will of course appear, but by the time of their arrival the plants will have attained sufficient size to withstand their attacks, particularly will this be the case if protected with dry earth, sifted over the leaves to roughen them or the application of tobacco tea or tobacco stems or leaves about the plants.
Pieces of sod, about four inches square, should be cut and placed earth-side up close together in the warmest part of the hotbed and several seeds planted on each piece and the whole covered with a fourth of an inch of earth. When ready to transplant lift the pieces on to a flat board or carrier and slip into a hole prepared for them with as little disturbance as possible and press the soil firmly about them so that the air will not get underneath and dry the roots.
There is not too much room for vine vegetables of any sort in the small kitchen garden and if desired the early cucumbers for table use may be grown on netting. The Japanese cucumber is a climbing sort especially addicted to this manner of growth, bears fine, large fruit of most excellent quality and the position on the wire, away from the soil and damp ground, produces a most attractive fruit, free from the yellow blanching that is present on the cucumbers grown on the ground. Last year among a number of these Japanese plants there occurred one or two plants of a snow white cucumber that I found very superior in crispness and flavor to the green fruit. Owing to early frost I was not able to secure seed of this interloper. Mr. Burbank's cucumber seed did not produce a single white seed. This is not, however, a climbing sort, but all vines which have tendrils can be grown on netting. Squash even will grow, bear and seem to enjoy the experience.
Cucumbers when grown for the table should be gathered as soon as of slicing size, whether wanted or not, as allowing the fruit to ripen on the vine stops production; this is especially imperative in the case of pickles which must be removed as soon as of sufficient size to use. The small pickles of an inch and a quarter or less should be gathered first and larger pickles left until the latter part of the season as gathering the cucumbers while very small increases the vine's productiveness and there will always be enough overlooked to supply the larger sort of pickles.
Cucumbers for pickling should not be sown before June and may be planted at any time after that up to mid-July. Plant in hills from four to six feet apart spading in a spadeful of manure in each hill; thin out to three or four plants in a hill when danger of bugs is past; spray with Bordeaux Arsenate of Lead three ounces to a gallon of water, when in danger of beetles or blight; the combination of lead and Bordeaux mixture covers both emergencies.
Keep the ground well cultivated as long as the vines will allow; pinch off the ends of all the vines when about a foot long to induce branching; when the plants begin to bloom notice the presence or absence of bees. Some years the curcubita family fails signally in setting fruit and this is usually caused by lack of pollenization by the bees. On a small patch one may substitute cross-pollenization by carrying pollen from one blossom to another with a camel's hair brush or by shaking the blossoms against each other, but a preventative measure would be to raise a colony or two of bees. Sometimes the presence of some plant especially attractive to bees will lure them away from the melons, cucumbers and like plants. Two years ago the presence of a patch of vetch proved so attractive to the bees that it was not until late in the season that the flowers of a nearby patch of winter squash and citron received sufficient attention to set any fruit. The air was resonant with the hum of bees, but not one was to be seen on the vines.
There are any number of good cucumbers to choose from for general crop. Early Fortune has proved a favorite in my garden. It is a good bearer and quality and appearance are all that could be asked. The Davis Perfect, Arlington White Spine, and Westerfield's Chicago Pickle are all satisfactory sorts to grow.