178 THE amateur’s KITCIIEX garden. 
It resembles many other plants in this respect, that it grows 
“like a weed” when all the circumstances that govern it are 
favourable. . But it differs from many useful things that thrive 
under any circumstances, that it really is particular as to what 
it shall eat, drink, and avoid. The plant is extremely sen- 
sitive to extremes of any kind, and that is the main reason of 
the frequency of failures in its cnltivation. Those happy 
cultivators who profess to know nothing of failure, and can 
always show us houses or pits, or both, gaily garlanded with 
cucumbers, have had their share of failures, and have become 
wise through the teaching of adversity. Observe, if you have 
the opportunity, how particular they are in ensuring perfect 
drainage ; a rich and very mellow soil ; a sufficient and con- 
stant h at, both of soil below and air above, and, not the least 
important of all, a proper degree of humidity. The cucumber 
loves heat, but may quickly become roasted or frozen out of 
existence ; it loves a substantial soil, but sheer clay will kill 
it ; for moisture it has a continual hankering, but is easily 
washed out of existence when supplied with more water than 
it can appropriate. Generally speaking, failures are the result 
of some extreme condition — too much or too little moisture ; 
a temperature too high or too low ; or, what is perhaps more 
often the case, a succession of extremes of the most opposite 
character, as for example, being suddenly deluged with water 
after having been allowed to become dry, or being subjected 
to a great heat after having for some time been too cold for 
existence. 
One of the very first requisites to success is to make up the 
bed on a sufficient body of drainage materials. If the bed 
becomes sour and pasty through any excess of moisture, the 
plants will collapse and present all the appearance of having- 
been killed by drought. Another requisite is to secure a 
suitable compost containing a large proportion of well-rotted 
turf from a loamy pasture, with thoroughly-rotted stable dung 
and leaf-mould quite free from mildew. To keep the heat at 
70° to 85° is easy enough in the books, but much less easy 
in practice ; so that probably nine-tenths of the failures arise 
from unfavourable temperatures. As regards humidity, cucum- 
bers are as a rule fairly treated ; they rarely suffer through 
insufficiency either overhead or under foot; but of course they 
occasionally get too much, and it often happens that the 
cultivator fails to perceive the relation of heat and humidity 
