224 



THE GARDENER'S MONTHLY 



[July, 



follows another who with the ball of the right 

 foot presses down his full weight on every inch of 

 soil in the drill where the seed has been sown. 

 The rows are then lightly leveled longitudinally 

 with the rake, a light roller is then passed over it 

 and the operation is done. By this method our 

 crop has never once failed, and what is true of 

 celery and cabbage seed is nearly true of all 

 seeds requiring to be sown during the late spring 

 or summer months. 



" On July 2d, 1874, as an experiment, I sowed 

 twelve rows of sweet corn and twelve rows of 

 beets, treading in after sowing every alternate 

 row of each. In both cases, those trod in came 

 up in four days, while those unfirmed remained 

 twelve days before starting, and would not then 

 have germinated had rain not fallen, for the soil 

 was dry as dust when planted. The result was 

 that the seeds that had been trodden in grew 

 freely from the start, and matured their crops to 

 a marketable condition by fall, while the rows 

 unfirmed did not mature, as they were not only 

 eight days later in germinating, but the plants 

 were also to some extent enfeebled by being 

 partially dried in the loose, dry soil. This experi- 

 ment was a most useful one, for it proved that a 

 corn crop sown in the vicinity of New York as 

 late as July 2d could be made to produce ' rousing 

 ears ' in October, when they never fail to sell 

 freely at high rates, but the crop would not ma- 

 ture unless the seed germinated at once, and 

 which would never be certain at that drj'^ and 

 hot season unless by this method. 



"The same season in August I treated seeds of 

 turnips and spinach in the same way. Those 

 trod in germinated at once and made an excel- 

 lent crop, while those unfirmed germinated feebly 

 and were eventually nearly all burned out by a 

 continuance of dry, hot air penetrating through 

 the loose soil to the tender rootlets. Of course 

 this rule of treading in or firming seeds after 

 sowing must not be blindly followed. Now, ff 

 firming the soil around seed to protect it from 

 the influence of a dry and hot atmosphere is a 

 necessity, it is obvious that it is even more so in 

 the case of plants whose rootlets are even more 

 sensitive to such influence than the dormant 

 seed. Experienced professional horticulturists, 

 however, are less likely to neglect this than to 

 neglect in the case of seeds, for the damage from 

 such neglect is easier to be seen and hence better 

 understood by the practical nurseryman; but 

 with the inexperienced amateur the case is dif- 

 ferent, when he receives his package of trees or 



plants from the nurseryman he handles them as 

 if they were glass, every broken twig or root calls 

 forth a complaint, and he proceeds to plant them 

 gingerly, straightening out each root and sifting 

 the soil around them, but he would no more 

 stamp down that soil than he would stamp on 

 the soil of his mother's grave. So the plant in 

 nine cases out of ten is left loose and waggling, 

 the dry air penetrates through the soil to its 

 roots, the winds shake it and it shrivels up and 

 fails to grow; then come the anathemas on the 

 head of the unfortunate nurseryman who is 

 charged with selling him dead trees or plants. 



"About a month ago I sent a package of a 

 dozen roses by mail to a lady in Savannah. She 

 wrote me a woeful story last week saying that, 

 though the roses had arrived seemingly all right, 

 they had all died but one, and, what was very 

 singular, she said, the one that lived was the one 

 that Mr. Jones had stepped on, and which she 

 had thought sure was crushed to death, for 

 Mr. Jones weighs 200 pounds. Now, though we 

 do not advise any gentleman of 200 pounds put- 

 ting his brogan on the top of a tender rose plant 

 as a practice conducive to its health, yet if 

 Mrs. Jones could have allowed her weight to 

 press the soil against the root of each of her 

 dozen roses, I much doubt if she would now 

 have had to mourn their loss. These improve- 

 ments loom up from various causes, but mainly 

 from suggestions thrown out by our employees in 

 charge of special departments, a system which 

 we do all in our power to encourage. As a proof 

 of the value of such improvements which have 

 led to simplying our operations, I will state the 

 fact that though my area of greenhouse surface 

 is now more than double that which it was in 

 1870, and the land used in our florists' business 

 one-third more, yet the number of hands he em- 

 ployed is less now than in 1870, and yet at the 

 same time the quality of our stock is infinitely 

 better now than then. Whether it is the higher 

 price of labor in this country that forces us into 

 labor saving expedients, or the interchange of 

 opinions from the great number of nationalities 

 centering here that gives us broader views of cul- 

 ture, I am not prepared to state, but that America 

 is now selling nearly all the products of the 

 greenhouse, garden, nursery and farm, lower 

 than is done in Europe, admits of no question, 

 and if my homely suggestions in this matter of 

 firming the soil around newly planted seeds or 

 plants will in any degree assist us in still holding 

 to the front I will be gratified." 



