STARTING PLANTS FROM SEEDS 23 
factory way is to make a few regular flats from a 
soap or cracker box bought at the grocer’s. Saw it 
lengthwise into sections two inches deep, being care- 
ful to first draw out nails and wire staples in the 
way, and bottom these with material of the same 
sort. Either leave the bottom boards half an inch 
apart, or bore seven or eight half-inch holes in the 
bottom of each, to provide thorough drainage. If 
they are to be used in the house, a coat or two of 
paint will make them very presentable. Of course 
one such box will accommodate a great many seeds 
— enough to start two hundred to a thousand little 
plants — but you can sow them in rows, as described 
later, and thus put from three to a dozen sorts in 
each box. 
Where most beginners fail in attempting to start 
seeds is in not taking the trouble to prepare a proper 
soil. They are willing to take any amount of 
trouble with watering and heat and all that, but 
they will not fix a suitable soil. The soil for the 
seed box need not be rich, in fact it is better not to 
have manure in it; but very porous and very light 
it must be, especially for such small seeds as most 
flowers have. Such a soil may be mixed up from 
rotted sod (or garden loam), leaf-mould and sharp 
sand, used in equal proportions. If the loam used 
is clayey, it may take even a larger proportion of 
sand. The resulting mixture should be extremely 
fine and crumbling, and feel almost “light as a 
