SOWING SEEDS. 43 



Two ounces of onion, leek, lettuce, endive, parsley, canteloupe. 



Three ounces of carrot, cress, celery, chervil, water melon, parsnip, 



herbs. 

 Four ounces of cucumbers, nasturtium, 

 Five ounces of l)eet. 

 Six ounces of radisli, spinach. 

 Eight ounces of corn salad. 

 Twelve ounces of okra, asjjaragus. 

 One pint of field corn. 

 One quart of sugar corn. 

 Three quarts of bush beans, peas. 



In a country of sucli diversity of soil and climate as. 

 the United States, it is difficult, indeed, impossible, to 

 advise, except in a very general way, as to processes uf 

 tillage, seeding and culture. With sixteen hundred and 

 fifty miles of territory north and south, three thousand 

 five hundred miles east to west, a surface level in some 

 places with the sea, in others four to eight thousand feet 

 elevation, some districts having an annual rainfall of 

 ten to twenty inches, others of one hundred and twenty 

 inches, soils differing with varying geological forma- 

 tion on two thousand milHons of acres, an acreage nearly 

 equal to the entire continent of Europe. 



In correspondence the writer accordingly adopts the 

 "policy of advising inquirers to observe the practice of 

 successful gardeners in their respective localities, and 

 follow that system as a far safer practice than anything 

 he can advise from experience, necessarily limited to 

 the Middle States. In the Northern and Middle States 

 the average season for open ai'r seeding may be indicated 

 by the blooming of well known trees and shrubs, though 

 seeding may be made with profit, both before and after 

 such periods, as it is a safe rule, in gardening, to divide 

 the risks. For instance, when the peach is in bloom 

 sow those seeds which will germinate in cold soil, resist 

 slight frost, as peas, spinach, onion and leek. When 

 the oah bursts its leaf buds, sow beet, carrot, celery, 

 lettuce, parsnip, radish, salsify, turnip, tomato. When 

 the blackberry is in bloom sow those seeds which will 



