FROM SEED TO GROVE. 29 



needs for his grove ; the trees will never come amiss, and 

 they require but little care once fairly started on their 

 life's journey. 



For raising a limited number of seedlings, say two or 

 three hundred, cast off boxes, such as may be had at any 

 country store, are to be preferred to the open ground. 

 Even better than several small boxes is one large one, such 

 as can be made at home in a short time. Make a box ten 

 inches deep, two feet wide, and as long as your boards 

 will allow, twelve, sixteen, or twenty feet a bottom is 

 unnecessary; nail on braces to keep the boards from 

 spreading ; fill the box with sand mixed with well-rotted 

 stable manure, or with a small portion of commercial fertil- 

 izer mixed through it ; pack it down firmly ; pour on water 

 until the ground is thoroughly saturated; then with a 

 pointed stick make a number of parallel grooves about one 

 inch deep and about six inches apart; drop your seeds 

 three inches apart in the little trenches thus made, draw- 

 ing the soil on top, and with a small piece of board press 

 it down as firmly as possible. Now mulch your box with 

 grass or moss (and when we speak of moss, now and here- 

 after, we mean the gray "Florida Moss"); the moss is the 

 best, as it does not pack, and while it retains moisture 

 allows a ray of sunshine to penetrate now and then to 

 the soil to coax into being the little embryo which is 

 buried that it may live ; let the sun reach the seed-box 

 during a greater part of the day all day, even, would do 

 no harm if the mulch is heavy ; do not water the seeds 

 more than once a week, and not then unless the soil is 

 dry. More seeds are lost by being rotted by a superabun- 

 dance of water than from any other cause ; the soil in 

 which they lie perdu should be moist but not wet. This is 

 true not only of seeds of the citrus family, but of all 

 seeds. 



