HOW, WHEX, AXD WHERE TO SOW SEKDS. 75 



we prefer first to thoroughly saturate the bed with water, 

 and after it has dried enough, so that it can he raked with- 

 out clogging, sow the seed. It is much better to do this 

 than water after the seed has been sown, as it has a ten- 

 dency in most soils to bake the surface. 



Sowing rx Hot-beds. — It would lengthen this chapter 

 too much to give extended directions for sowing seeds in 

 hot-beds. I will briefly say, that after the hot-bed has 

 been formed — say by the first week in March, let soil, of 

 the kind recommended, be placed on it six inches deep, in- 

 to which plunge a thermometer three or four inches, and 

 when the temperature recedes to 75 degrees or 80 degrees, 

 you may then sow, giving air in mild weather as soon as 

 the seeds begin to vegetate, covering up warmly at night 

 by mats, straw, or hay. But many that may read this 

 never saw a hot-bed, and are perhaps never likely to have 

 one : to such I would say that there is an excellent substi- 

 tute on hand in most dwellings, in the kitchen or base- 

 ment windows, facing South or East, inside of which is a 

 temperature usually not far from that required for the 

 vegetation of seeds, and where plants from seeds of the 

 early vegetables, or tender plants for the flower border, may 

 be raised nearly as well, and with far less attention, than in 

 a hot-bed. Instead of hot-beds, we use our green-houses 

 for the purpose, using shallow boxes in which we sow the 

 seed ; these are made from the common soap box, cut in 

 threo pieces, the top and bottom forming two, and the 

 middle piece, bottomed, making the third ; these form 

 cheap, convenient boxes. Fill these nearly full with the 

 soil recommended, and after sowing, press nicely down 

 level, and make the surface soil moderately firm; keep 



