286 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



drain, the next best thing will be to make surface ditches to let off surface 

 water, then haul on sand, swamp muck, and well-composted manures to the 

 depth of four inches. Hepcat the process the second year; plow eight inches 

 deep. The hind will be ready the second year for business. "When we find too 

 much sand we should haul on other soils to make it of the proper consistency; 

 but the products of the compost heap take very kindly to all the varieties of 

 soils we have to contend with, and a successful gardener will see that he is well 

 supplied with that indispensable article. There are many thousands of dollars 

 wasted every year by planting vegetable and flower seeds on soils that are 

 unfitted for the tiny little seeds, but there are many other causes of failure. 

 The soil may be good and all other requisites may have been carefully complied 

 with until the weeding and thinning comes in hot days in June and July 

 (many a boy has said he was sorry he had ever learned the trade), when if neg- 

 lected at this time the weeds are allowed to grow with the plants, you soon 

 have an unsightly plat of ground that is usually subdued with a scytlie instead 

 of a hoe. In giving the method of raising onions the same method will prove 

 successliil in raising roots of all kinds, although the time of planting may 

 differ. The system of raising vegetables on beds raised up from four to six 

 inches high seems to be found among the lost arts. Nearly all successful gar- 

 deners are planting the ground in a flat condition, making the rows long, and 

 when it is practicable the rows are far enough apart to work a horse between 

 them. If too close for horse work the hand cultivator can be more successfully 

 used. The importance of firming down the soil atter planting fine seeds is too 

 little thought of by tlie average gardener. There is an old rule that seeds 

 should be covered with fine earth two and one-half times its breadth, which is 

 a rule safe to follow. The firming down the ground so that it comes in contact 

 with the seed does very much to aid germination. A hand roller is an indis- 

 pensible article in a garden. I will here name other tools that can be made by 

 any person with ordinary ingenuity. A hand marker with four or five teeth 

 12 inches long and IG inches apart, with a tongue to draw it by. An onion 

 weeder can be made by taking a piece of hoop iron IG inches long, grind one 

 edge six inches in center, bend it up, fit it on hard wood block and nail fast, 

 adjust it to suit the operator, and bore hole in center for handle. This can be 

 used among small plants and weeds. It cuts off small weeds; they pass over 

 the knife leaving ground level. A sieve for sifting dirt on seed bed may be 

 made by taking a fauning-mill screen and nail on sides three inches high of 

 ono-half inch stuff. It is an indispensable article in a garden. 

 The March meeting was occupied in discussing 



HOT-BEDS. 



F. B. Johnson's hot-bed was made as follows: He used sash 3xG feet and 

 made cribs of li- inch boards without bottom, 16 inches high at front and 22 

 inches on back side — champering ends to fit sash, and long enough to receive 

 three sash filkd with glass. He commenced to get the manure ready about 

 mid-winter to admit of its being forked over twice to promote fermentation. 

 It should be well mixed, and when ready for the crib, laid down two feet thick 

 and about one foot larger each way than the size of crib which rested on the 

 manure bed. He used a covering three inches thick of rich soil and clay and 

 also leaf mold and decomposed sod, making five inches in all. This should be 

 made fine. He sows seeds in drills four inches apart on the 20th of March, 

 giving tlie bed full strength of glass heat until April 1, at which time a partial 

 screen may be needed, for which a coat of whitewash is desirable. He would 



